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Thursday, February 28, 2013
One Building Looks Like Three Stacked On Each Other
Ousted Groupon CEO writes frank letter to employees
Groupon Inc. founder Andrew Mason sent a memo to employees after he was fired Thursday. Here's the text of his letter:
People of Groupon,
After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding ? I was fired today. If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that's hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.
You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I'm getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we've shared over the last few months, and I've never seen you working together more effectively as a global company ? it's time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.
For those who are concerned about me, please don't be ? I love Groupon, and I'm terribly proud of what we've created. I'm OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take the company this far with all of you. I'll now take some time to decompress (FYI I'm looking for a good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40, if anyone has a suggestion), and then maybe I'll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive.
If there's one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what's best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness ? don't waste the opportunity!
I will miss you terribly.
Love,
Andrew
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ousted-groupon-ceo-firing-gives-224653703.html
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Dane Cook to voice lead of Disney's "Planes," replacing Jon Cryer
NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Dane Cook will lend his voice to Dusty, the lead character in Disney's upcoming movie "Planes," a spin-off of its "Cars" film franchise, the studio announced on Thursday.]
Cook replaces Jon Cryer, who had been attached to the project but bowed out. Dusty dreams of competing as an air racer but has a crippling fear of heights.
"Dane Cook brings unmatched charisma and brilliant comedic timing and instincts to the character," Klay Hall, the film's director, said in a statement. "He gives Dusty a great edge."
Hall, who has directed both "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill," is a Disneytoon Studios veteran. Pixar/Disney Animation chief creative officer John Lasseter is producing the film, which Disney initially intended to release direct to video.
It will now release the 3D animated comedy in theaters August 9.
Cook, the once ubiquitous stand-up comedian, has appeared in films such as "Dan in Real Life" and "My Best Friend's Girl." He recently starred in a few episodes of "Next Caller" for NBC, but the network cancelled the show before it aired.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dane-cook-voice-lead-disneys-planes-replacing-jon-202918551.html
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Police and firefighters at higher risk for mental disorders following traumatic events
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 26-Feb-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Natalie Wood-Wright
nwoodwri@jhsph.edu
410-614-6029
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Police, firefighters and other protective services workers who are repeatedly exposed to traumatic events and are new to their profession are at greater risk of developing a psychiatric disorder, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The researchers also found that protective services workers do not appear to have a higher prevalence of mental health problems than workers in other occupations. The study results are featured in the February 2013 issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.
"Our findings suggest that exposure to diverse types of traumatic events among protective services workers is a risk factor for new onset of psychopathology and alcohol use disorders," said Christopher N. Kaufmann, MHS, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "When we examined the relationship of exposure to common traumas with the development of mood, anxiety and alcohol use disorders among protective services workers, we found that these workers were at greater risk for developing a mood or alcohol use disorder. Interestingly, this relationship was not seen in those who had been in these jobs for a longer period, but was strong and statistically significant in workers who recently joined the profession. Developing curricula in coping skills and providing timely interventions for early career protective services workers may help reduce future psychiatric morbidity in these workers."
Using data from the U.S National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions researchers compared the prevalence of mental disorders of protective services workers to that of adults in other occupations. In addition, they examined the association of exposure to common traumatic experiences with the development of new mood, anxiety and alcohol use disorders among protective services workers who recently joined the workforce and those who had been in these jobs for a longer period. Lifetime and recent trauma events most commonly reported by protective services workers included: seeing someone badly injured or killed; unexpectedly seeing a dead body; having someone close die unexpectedly and having someone close experience a serious or life-threatening illness, accident or injury.
"The association between the number of different traumatic event types and incident mood and alcohol-use disorders, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, was virtually confined to the group of early career protective services workers," said Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "Future research should examine the coping skills of protective services workers who have been in these jobs for many years, which might make them less likely to develop psychiatric complications in the face of various potentially traumatic experiences."
The authors note, "Special support programs and services for these early career workers can potentially help to prevent development of chronic psychopathology and attrition from these critical jobs."
###
"Mental Health of Protective Services Workers: Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions," was written by Christopher N. Kaufmann, Lainie Rutkow, Adam P. Spira and Ramin Mojtabai.
[ | 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: Natalie Wood-Wright
nwoodwri@jhsph.edu
410-614-6029
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Police, firefighters and other protective services workers who are repeatedly exposed to traumatic events and are new to their profession are at greater risk of developing a psychiatric disorder, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The researchers also found that protective services workers do not appear to have a higher prevalence of mental health problems than workers in other occupations. The study results are featured in the February 2013 issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.
"Our findings suggest that exposure to diverse types of traumatic events among protective services workers is a risk factor for new onset of psychopathology and alcohol use disorders," said Christopher N. Kaufmann, MHS, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "When we examined the relationship of exposure to common traumas with the development of mood, anxiety and alcohol use disorders among protective services workers, we found that these workers were at greater risk for developing a mood or alcohol use disorder. Interestingly, this relationship was not seen in those who had been in these jobs for a longer period, but was strong and statistically significant in workers who recently joined the profession. Developing curricula in coping skills and providing timely interventions for early career protective services workers may help reduce future psychiatric morbidity in these workers."
Using data from the U.S National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions researchers compared the prevalence of mental disorders of protective services workers to that of adults in other occupations. In addition, they examined the association of exposure to common traumatic experiences with the development of new mood, anxiety and alcohol use disorders among protective services workers who recently joined the workforce and those who had been in these jobs for a longer period. Lifetime and recent trauma events most commonly reported by protective services workers included: seeing someone badly injured or killed; unexpectedly seeing a dead body; having someone close die unexpectedly and having someone close experience a serious or life-threatening illness, accident or injury.
"The association between the number of different traumatic event types and incident mood and alcohol-use disorders, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, was virtually confined to the group of early career protective services workers," said Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "Future research should examine the coping skills of protective services workers who have been in these jobs for many years, which might make them less likely to develop psychiatric complications in the face of various potentially traumatic experiences."
The authors note, "Special support programs and services for these early career workers can potentially help to prevent development of chronic psychopathology and attrition from these critical jobs."
###
"Mental Health of Protective Services Workers: Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions," was written by Christopher N. Kaufmann, Lainie Rutkow, Adam P. Spira and Ramin Mojtabai.
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/jhub-paf022613.php
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Tunisia: 4 in custody for politician's slaying
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) ? Four suspects belonging to a radical Islamic group have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder of a leftist politician that plunged Tunisia into crisis, but the killer himself remains at large, the interior minister said Tuesday.
Ali Larayedh, who has been tapped to be the next prime minister, said the Tunisian suspects, some of whom had been arrested in the last 48 hours, were accomplices to the murder and that the identity of the assassin is known.
The assassination of Chokri Belaid, an opposition politician from the Popular Front coalition, occurred outside his home on Feb. 6. It shocked the country, and many blamed the Islamist-led governing coalition, unleashing days of protests. On Sunday, thousands demonstrated in downtown Tunis over the lack of results in the investigation.
Many have accused the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party, which dominates the government, of complicity in the attack, citing its alleged use of gangs to intimidate political opponents. But Ennahda has denied ever resorting to any violence and has vehemently condemned the assassination.
Larayedh, who is a member of Ennahda, did not identify the group he was holding responsible for the assassination, but denied there were any foreign links to the killing.
Since the overthrow of Tunisia's secular dictatorship in January 2011, there has been a rise in ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafis, some of whom have resorted to violence. On Sept. 14, a band attacked the U.S. Embassy and damaged the surroundings. Tunisia's government has blamed the radical Islamic group Ansar al-Shariah for that attack and said it is trying to track down its leader.
Larayedh said that he was holding Tuesday's news conference in response to pressure for results of the investigation and media leaks the night before that had erroneously claimed the murderer himself had been arrested.
"The investigation is ongoing, and I will give you the latest conclusions," he said. "We cannot give any details that would affect the inquiry."
The four suspects range in age from 26 to 34 and are part of a "radical religious group," the minister said, adding that one had confessed to accompanying the actual assassin. At least some of the others detained had been involved in checking out the site a few days before the attack, the minister said.
Belaid was shot four times as he got in his car outside his house. The suspect involved in the actual attack took part in a reenactment of the crime scene outside Belaid's home on Tuesday wearing a mask and under heavy police guard.
"It was an ignoble crime with repercussions on the country's security and social peace, and has threatened to take us into chaos and the unknown," Larayedh said at the press conference.
The assassination resulted in the resignation of the country's prime minister, and Larayedh has been appointed his successor to form a new coalition government.
Authorities also have discovered many weapons caches and clashed with militants crossing into the country from neighboring Algeria and Libya. Larayedh said he believes some of the weapons were to carry out terrorist attacks inside Tunisia, while others were en route from Libya to Islamist militants fighting in northern Mali.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tunisia-4-custody-politicians-slaying-151457552.html
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Deformed otter penises a concern for humans
Al Grillo / AP file
This Alaska sea otter from the waters off of the Aleutian Island of Adak looks healthy enough. Its brethren in England aren't faring so well.
By Marc Lallanilla
LiveScience
Scientists are concerned about the deformed sex organs of England's otters ? and what it might mean for humans.
The furry mammals are found in rivers throughout Britain, but male otters aren't what they used to be. An alarming number of them now have shrunken penis bones (baculum), as well as undescended testicles (cryptorchidism) and cysts on sperm-carrying tubes, according to a new report written by Cardiff University scientists.
The results are based on analyses of samples from 755 otter carcasses collected around England and Wales between 1992 and 2009.
"We were surprised to see the reduction in the baculum weight," Elizabeth Chadwick, project manager at the Cardiff University Otter Project, told the BBC. "(It's) certainly something that needs further investigation."
Though scientists aren't yet able to identify a single cause for the deformed sex organs, one leading suspect is a class of chemical pollutants known as endocrine disruptors.
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals?(EDCs) alter the hormone balance of humans and animals. An unborn fetus is particularly vulnerable to the effects of endocrine disruptors, since the development of sex organs in the womb is largely controlled by hormones such as testosterone and estrogen.
The plastic additive Bisphenol A, or BPA is one hormone disruptor that's consistently been cited as a concern for women of childbearing age and their babies. Other endocrine-disrupting compounds are found in pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other common household products.
Though scientists are still sifting through the evidence, there are many researchers who believe the prevalence of endocrine disruptors might be linked to a worldwide drop in sperm quality and quantity in humans. [Sexy Swimmers: 7 Odd Facts About Sperm]
As the top predator in England's rivers and lakes, the BBC reports, otters are an indicator species whose health reveals much about the well-being of the entire aquatic ecosystem. Health problems discovered in otters, Chadwick said, "could be a warning for all mammals really, which include us humans."
"These findings highlight that it is time to end the complacency about the effects of pollutants on male reproductive health, particularly as some of the effects reported in otters may be caused by the same EDCs that are suspected to contribute to the declining trends in men's reproductive health and cause testicular cancer, undescended testes and low sperm count," Gwynne Lyons, director of Chemicals, Health and Environment Monitoring Trust (CHEM), which co-authored the report with Cardiff University, said in a statement.
Contact Marc Lallanilla at mlallanilla@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarcLallanilla. Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?and Google+.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Nike launches its first 3D-printed football cleat, Ryan Fitzpatrick will be pleased
While we're still giddy at the idea of printing our own phone case, Nike's gone more than a few steps further with its latest innovation. The Swoosh has managed to 3D print the base plate of its latest football cleat, the Vapor Laser Talon. The boot was created using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), which uses high-powered lasers to fuse pieces of plastic together, rather than the more basic methods we've seen in the Makerbot. Not only did SLS enable the company to produce a shoe that would otherwise be impossible with traditional manufacturing techniques, but it was also hammered-out in a fraction of the time. There's no line on when we'll be able to pick one up (or how much it'll cost you), but we imagine you'll pay a premium for that extra bit of speed.
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Nike
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/nike-3d-printed-cleat/
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
India on high alert: Twin bike bombs kill at least 11 in southern Indian city of Hyderabad
The explosions, which injured scores of market goers, come amid ongoing tensions in India over its recent execution of convicted terrorist Mohammad Afzal Guru.
Fire fighters extinguish a fire at the site of an explosion in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad February 21, 2013. Two bombs placed on bicycles exploded in a crowded market-place in Hyderabad on Thursday, and the federal home minister said at least 11 people were killed and 50 wounded.
Reuters
EnlargeA pair of bicycle bombs rocked a crowded marketplace in Hyderabad today, killing at least 11 people and injuring scores more in the southern Indian city of 6.8 million, a major hub for information technology where Microsoft and Google have a large presence.
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Reuters reports that India has gone on high alert after the explosions, which local television stations report may have killed up to 15 people and wounded at least 50.?The last major bomb attack in India was a blast in September of 2011 outside the high court in New Delhi that killed 13 people.
"Both blasts took place within a radius of 150 meters," federal Home (Interior) Minister Sushil Shinde told reporters, adding the explosives were placed on bicycles parked in the crowded marketplace. "Eight people died at one place, three at the other."
The explosions come less than two weeks after India hanged a Kashmiri man for a militant attack on the country's parliament in 2001 that had sparked violent clashes.
Witnesses told Reuters they heard at least two explosions in the Dilsukh Nagar area of Hyderabad just after dusk but there could have been more.
The Hindustan Times reports that Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters that "it was too early to say anything" about whether it was a terrorist attack, but that the government was investigating. But the Times notes that the country had already been on alert for attacks due to the recent execution of Mohammad Afzal Guru, a convict in the 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament.
The Monitor reported earlier this month that Mr. Afzal Guru's death sentence, though handed down in 2002, was carried out on Feb. 9 without advance warning, and appears to involve a significant political impetus.
The execution is being seen by analysts as the ruling Congress party?s way of regaining public confidence in the wake of several corruption scandals and protests over the recent Delhi gang-rape. Political commentator Seema Mustafa says the sudden decision to execute Afzal Guru, after years of dilly-dallying, is part of a Congress party effort?to improve its position for the 2014 general elections. ?The Congress in its usual cynical manipulation of the votes is trying to eat into the majority constituency with this action,? she says.
Executions had become more rare up until [that of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist in the 2008 Mumbai attacks] ? the first in India in eight years. Like Kasab's hanging in November, Azfal Guru's?came just ahead of a parliament session. ?I would just say it's extremely tragic if Indian democracy is going to survive on executing someone or the other before every Parliament session,? says lawyer Vrinda Grover. Congress party spokesman?Abhishek Manu Singhvi called such suggestions about the timing "irresponsible and childish."
The execution led to days of protest in Kashmir, where Afzal Guru was from.
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Trent Reznor Announces Nine Inch Nails Tours!
Trent Reznor Announces Nine Inch Nails Tours!
Trent Reznor has announced the return of Nine Inch Nails. The musician retired after the “Wave Goodbye” tour in 2009, but just today announced a new line up and plans to tour in 2013 and 2014. Trent Reznor wrote, “Nine Inch Nails are touring this year. I was working with Adrian Belew on some musical ...
Trent Reznor Announces Nine Inch Nails Tours! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News
Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/02/trent-reznor-announces-nine-inch-nails-tours/
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Monday, February 25, 2013
GM seeks approval to pay CEO $11.1 million: CNBC
(Reuters) - General Motors Co
If the U.S. government approve the plan, Akerson's annual compensation would increase more than 20 percent compared to last year, the report said. (http://link.reuters.com/meg36t)
Compensation of GM executives is governed by a special paymaster from the federal government as part of provisions put in place after GM's U.S.-funded bankruptcy restructuring in 2009.
No determinations has yet been made for 2013 compensation, a U.S. Treasury Department official told CNBC.
General Motors and U.S. Treasury officials were not available to comment outside business hours.
(Reporting by Bijoy Koyitty in Bangalore; Editing by Matt Driskill)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gm-seeks-approval-pay-ceo-11-1-million-024802664--finance.html
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Rocket Internet?s Linio, The Amazon Of Latin America, Raises $26.5M From Summit Partners. Rinse And Repeat.
Another Rocket Internet-incubated e-commerce company gets a significant cash injection today: Linio, the so-called 'Amazon of Latin America', has raised a ?20 million (~$26.5m) round from previous backer Summit Partners. It's also the second investment for Linio this month after German retail company Tengelmann Group announced it had invested a "8-digit Euro sum", reportedly somewhere in the ?15-20m range. Its other previous backers are AB Kinnevik, and J.P Morgan Asset Management, along with the Samwers brothers' own startup factor, Rocket Internet. The new funds are said to be used for further growth in Latin America where the company already operates in Colombia, M?xico, Peru and Venezuela.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_5vGJuPfZDw/
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Skeptical Syrian opposition to attend Rome talks
BERLIN (AP) ? Skeptical Syrian opposition leaders agreed Monday to attend an international conference in Rome after first threatening to boycott the session that was to be the centerpiece of Secretary of State John Kerry's his first overseas mission in his new job.
Opposition leaders had protested what they see as inaction by other nations in the face of violence from Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
Kerry not only made a public plea at a joint news conference Monday with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, he also called Moaz Khatib, leader of the Syrian Opposition Council, "to encourage him to come to Rome," a senior U.S. official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter, described the conversation as "good" but declined to offer more detail.
Spokesman Walid al-Bunni said the council had decided to send a delegation to Rome after all.
Al-Bunni told Al-Arabiya TV the decision was made based on guarantees al-Khatib heard from western diplomats that the conference would be different and that the opposition would receive real commitments this time. "We will go and we will see if the promises are different this time," he said.
After speaking with Khatib, Kerry flew to Berlin from London, the first stop of his first trip as secretary of state ? a hectic nine-country dash through Europe and the Middle East.
Kerry had also dispatched his top Syrian envoy to Cairo in hopes of convincing opposition leaders that their participation is critical to addressing questions from potential donors and securing additional aid from the United States and Europe.
"We are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind, wondering where the support is, if it is coming," Kerry told reporters in London after meeting British Prime Minister David Cameron and Hague. "We are not going to let the Syrian opposition not have its ability to have its voice properly heard in this process."
For his part, Hague said the violence in Syria, especially recent scud missile attacks on the city of Aleppo, was unacceptable and that the west's current position could not be sustained while an "appalling injustice" is being done to Syrian citizens.
"In the face of such murder and threat of instability, our policy cannot stay static as the weeks go by," Hague told reporters, standing beside Kerry. "We must significantly increase support for the Syrian opposition. We are preparing to do just that."
Kerry agreed.
"We are not coming to Rome simply to talk, we are coming to Rome to talk about next steps," Kerry said, adding that he was sympathetic to opposition complaints that they were not getting the support they need to defend themselves against the Assad regime or oust him from power.
"I am very sensitive to that frustration," recalling that as a U.S. senator he was one of several who pushed the administration to consider military aid to the Syrian opposition.
"But I am the new secretary of state ... and the president of the United States has sent me here and sent me to this series of meetings and in Rome because he is concerned about the course of events.
"This moment is ripe for us to be considering what more we can do," he said, adding that if the opposition wants results, "join us" in Rome.
Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Monday the Assad regime was ready to hold talks with opposition leaders, the first time that a high-ranking Syrian official has stated publicly that the government would meet with the opposition. Al-Moallem made his comments after meeting in Moscow with Russian officials.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Moallem's remarks appeared positive but expressed caution about the seriousness of the offer.
"I don't know their motivations, other than to say they continue to rain down horrific attacks on their own people," Ventrell told reporters. "So that speaks pretty loudly and clearly."
If the Assad regime is serious, he said, it should inform the U.N. peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi of its readiness for talks. Ventrell said the Assad regime hasn't yet done that.
Obama administration officials have debated whether the U.S. should arm the rebels, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey having said they urged such a course of action. The White House has been unwilling to do so for fears the weapons could end up in the wrong hands. Currently, the U.S. provides only non-lethal support and humanitarian aid.
The United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's 2-year civil war, which began as an uprising against Assad's regime.
Kerry said the Syrian people "deserve better" than the violence currently gripping their country as he stood alongside Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague.
___
Associated Press writers Cassandra Vinograd in London and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skeptical-syrian-opposition-attend-rome-talks-204353433.html
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Gerrymandering, gun control, future of the GOP, State of Mesabi, a 35W bridge su...
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Source: http://www.facebook.com/MinnPost/posts/544876282213065
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Will Google Penalize Chromebooks, Google ... - Deon Designs
A day after warning publishers against advertorials, will Google?s search team now have to penalize parts of its own company for running its advertorials? Perhaps, and if so, it wouldn?t be the first time. It?s also another absurd chapter in Google?s war on paid links.
Google Says: Advertorials, Beware!
After news came out yesterday that Google had apparently penalized Interflora for running advertorials ? and also reduced the PageRank values of many UK newspapers that carried these ? Google finally blogged a general warning against such practices.
From its post:
Please be wary if someone approaches you and wants to pay you for links or ?advertorial? pages on your site that pass PageRank. Selling links (or entire advertorial pages with embedded links) that pass PageRank violates our quality guidelines, and Google does take action on such violations
But as Aaron Wall at SEO Book covers today, examples of Google running advertorials could put itself in violation of its own policies.
Google?s Own Advertorials
Wall notes two cases. The first is from the Canadian newspaper, The Globe Mail, which appears to have been running Google advertorials for some time. Wall talked about them two years ago on Twitter, and several of them remain, dating back through 2010 and running until mid-2012.
For example, this one was written by Brett Willms, identified as the country marketing manager for Google Canada:
At the top, the first arrow identifies this as a ?special information feature brought to you by Google.? That?s the type of disclosure that media companies often want for human readers, so that they know whether something is written by their own staff (editorial content, typically not influenced by payment) or an advertorial (something that looks like editorial content, but where the content may be written or directed by an advertiser).
This particular disclosure could also be interpreted as editorial content that is sponsored by Google in the way that many sites are supported by ad sponsorship generally, but where the ads don?t dictate the coverage. If that were the case, this wouldn?t be an advertorial. But since this piece was written by a Google employee, putting it in the advertorial category seems pretty safe.
Why Google Wants Advertorials To Block Links
Google?s search quality team ? which tries to protect listings against spam and irrelevant content ? doesn?t really care about that visible disclosure. Rather, its concerned about advertorials because they can be a way for people to buy links, which in turn might up being considered a ?vote? that helps the page getting the link to rank better in Google (see also?Links: The Broken ?Ballot Box? Used By Google Bing).
If the links are prevented by passing credit ? typically by tagging them with a bit of code known as the nofollow attribute ? then Google?s search team isn?t worried about advertorials. So that second arrow in the screenshot above is important. If that link is passing credit to Google, then Google is violating its own policies against buying links.
Google Buys Links
It apparently is passing credit. The page is listed (along with others) in Google, so Google?s seeing the links ? and there?s no apparent blocking associated with it. Similarly, this page has a direct link that passes credit to Google Analytics, as well as the AdWords Help Center.
Meanwhile, this page has links that arguably might have helped Google content rank better for generic terms like ?driving directions? and ?coupons,? as you can see:
Well, that is if the links still worked. The driving directions link leads to a now-broken page at Google Maps. The other link is still valid, pointing to a help page about Google Places.
It?s unlikely Google was intentionally trying to rank that help page better for ?coupons? with this advertorial, but that will be beside the point. Google should follow its own rules.
Chromebooks Get Paid Links
The other example Wall points at is over at Edutopia, the non-profit education group backed by Star Wars creator George Lucas. The group has at least two pages with a notation saying they?re ?part of a series sponsored by Chromebooks,? as you can see below, from one of the pages about using Google Hangouts:
While other links in the article have a nofollow attribute attached to them, this link does not. In fact, the link even carries tracking codes, making it clear that someone at Google wanted to know if this link was driving traffic to them:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/education/devices/?utm_source=edutopiautm_medium=onlineutm_campaign=northam-edu-2013-chromeos-pm-online-blog-edutopia
The article itself perhaps isn?t considered an advertorial in that it wasn?t written by a Google employee, as the first arrow below points out. But it?s clearly content that happening because Google is doing more than a general ad buy.
That combined with direct links to Google products like Chromebooks or the Hangouts plug-in page the second arrow below points to probably violates Google?s guidelines on paid links:
Again, I doubt the intent was by Google to actually sponsor these posts in hopes of buying links. I certainly don?t think Edutopia believed it was selling links or trying to do anything against Google?s guidelines (I?ve done a couple free consulting calls over the years on general SEO issues to help the group, and it?s a nice collection of people trying to help educators).
Google Largely Ignores Intent, Punishes For Technicalities
But Google doesn?t have rules designed to assess intent. Instead, it focuses on techniques, much to my disappointment. As I wrote on this in the past:
I?d argue that the ?Be Fair? mantra means looking at intent, rather than tactics. Being fair means you don?t ban either a big company or a small company because they violated a technical guideline. You punish them because they intentionally worked to harm the user experience, in your opinion.
So what?s likely to happen here? The Globe Mail and Edutopia will probably get a PageRank reduction, which is largely meaningless. Potentially, they might not rank as well for some things because of this. But that?s really a?deterrent?to people who are trying to buy links from sites with high PageRank values, as those links are deemed more valuable. Since neither was likely intending to sell links, it?s not real loss for them. It?s a light penalty, because while Google doesn?t assess intent in deciding what?s right and wrong, it does take that into account when deciding how to punish.
Google Likely To Penalize Itself, Again
There?s an excellent chance Google?s going to have to penalize Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Chromebooks and Google Hangouts. When ?it doubt, it tends to be hard on itself, just like it penalized Chrome last year over a technical violation of its paid links policy. Chrome didn?t rank well for searches on ?Chrome? for two months.
Google?s also penalized Google Japan in 2009 for paid links,?its AdWords help area for cloaking in 2010, and the BeatThatQuote service it acquired in 2011 was penalized on day it was purchased over spam violations.
It Can Be Hard To Stay Safe (Oh Dear, Search Engine Land Has Paid Links!)
Each time these things happen, a common refrain can be heard. If Google itself can?t figure all this stuff out, how can publishers? And fair enough. It is confusing.
It?s been on my mind especially this week, as we had a new Digital Marketing Optimization Solution Center area go up on our Marketing Land sister-site. The area collects together our own Markting Land articles, so it?s not advertorial. IBM?s not sponsoring us to write about any topic or IBM in general. In fact, most of the articles where written before the deal even started.
We?re pretty sure we don?t have anything passing link credit outbound to IBM, but there are IBM white papers you can download. If someone uses a form on our own site, letting them fill out a form to download IBM content, is that page considered sponsored? Do we have to block links within our own site? The rules are unclear.
You can bet, a site that covers SEO best practices like ourselves ? and is heavily read by people at Google ? has nil desire to be selling links or violating Google?s guidelines. When we set-up our?e-Solution Spotlight?content area some years ago, I did a careful review of what the ad department was proposing, to ensure we weren?t passing along any link credit. To my horror, looking over at the area today, I can see that some of those links are passing credit, not tagged as nofollow as they should be.
Sigh. I guess we may potentially get penalized along with Google, not because there was any intent to do this but simply because someone screwed-up somewhere. Going forward, maybe we?ll just drop all our sponsored content pages from being in Google at all. That?s already what we were leaning toward this week, as we were doing the IBM review.
To Save The Links, We Had To Destroy Them?
I?ve felt Google has been losing its battle against paid links for ages. My post from 2007,?Time For Google To Give Up The Fight Against Paid Links?, remains relevant. From the conclusion:
Google?s supposed to be smart. Let it figure out if a link deserves credit or not, regardless of whether it is being sold, bartered, traded or editorially earned.
However, high-profile cases in 2011 involving JC Penney, online florists, Overstock Forbes did make me reconsider if somehow, Google was managing to turn the tide.
But no, I don?t think so. Maybe the attacks of the Penguin Update?last year and the insanity of people having to disavow links?is stopping some of the blatant and more crappy link buying. But some of it might be pushed further underground. Worse, the people who just don?t know any better or have no intent to do anything wrong ? including those at Google itself ? keep becoming?collateral?damage.
I?m at the point where I kind of feel like the only way to be safe with Google is to nofollow all your links, which damages the most important ranking signal that Google depends on.
Alternatively, it would be nice if Google came up with something other than the creaky, broken, leaky link system that it?s still depending on. How about spending more time interpreting some of those social signals as votes?
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Conserative candidate wins Cyprus election
Conserative candidate wins Cyprus election
By MENELAOS HADJICOSTISBy MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS, Associated Press?
?Opposition party leader and presidential candidate Nicos Anastasiades votes with his grandson Andis, in the Presidential election in southern port city of Limassol, Cyprus, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Faced with the specter of financial meltdown, Cypriots are choosing a new president with the conservative candidate favored to win over his left-wing rival in a runoff vote Sunday.(AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Opposition party leader and presidential candidate Nicos Anastasiades votes with his grandson Andis, in the Presidential election in southern port city of Limassol, Cyprus, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Faced with the specter of financial meltdown, Cypriots are choosing a new president with the conservative candidate favored to win over his left-wing rival in a runoff vote Sunday.(AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
A man votes in the presidential election in southern port city of Limassol, Cyprus, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Opposition party leader Nicos Anastasiades garnered 45.46 per cent of the vote in the first round of voting, some 18 points over communist-backed Stavros Malas. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Left-wing presidential candidate Stavros Malas votes in the Presidential election in Nicosia, Cyprus, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Faced with the specter of financial meltdown, Cypriots are choosing a new president with the conservative candidate favored to win over his left-wing rival in a runoff vote Sunday. (AP Photo/Philippos Christou)
A replica of a ballot with two presidential candidates, right-wing opposition leader Nicos Anasatsiades, left, and left-wng Stavros Mallas is posted on a wall by a police officer, right, at a polling station in southern port city of Limassol, Cyprus, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Opposition party leader Nicos Anastasiades garnered 45.46 per cent of the vote in the first round of voting, some 18 points over communist-backed Stavros Malas. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Right-wing opposition leader and presidential candidate Nicos Anastasiades with his granddaughter Nikoletta leaves after voting in the presidential election in southern port city of Limassol, Cyprus, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Anastasiades garnered 45.46 per cent of the vote in the first round of voting, some 18 points over communist-backed Stavros Malas. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Final results show that conservative candidate Nicos Anastasiades has won Cyprus' presidential runoff election by one of the widest margins in 30 years.
According to the Interior Ministry's website, with all the votes counted, Anastasiades had won 57.48 percent of the ballots, far ahead of left-wing rival Stavros Malas, who had 42.51 percent of the vote.
Cypriots are choosing their leader at a critical time.
Their country faces the specter of financial meltdown, and the new president will be under pressure to quickly finalize a financial rescue package with the eurozone's other 16 countries and the International Monetary Fund.
Associated PressPeople, Places and Companies: Cyprus
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Hackers target visitors to NBC's site
NBC.com has been found to harbor the RedKit browser exploit kit, which can deliver malware to vulnerable computers.?
Jane Krakowski and Jimmy Fallon in a Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show.
Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/AP
EnlargeThe main website for the NBC television network, NBC.com, was found yesterday to have been hacked so that it infected unsuspecting visitors.
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Specifically, it harbored the RedKit browser exploit kit, which triggers?drive-by downloads?of malware onto vulnerable computers.
The hack was one of a trio of security breaches yesterday, as the Aspen Institute think tank and the customer-support specialist Zendesk disclosed hacker intrusions into their networks.
NBC's problems arose when the head of Dutch security firm Fox-IT?tweeted his observations?about NBC.com, followed quickly by a posting on the?HitmanPro blog?run by the Dutch anti-virus firm SurfRight.
"There were two exploit links on the NBC website. The first one was on the main default (entry) page. And the second one was located on hxxp://www.nbc.com/assets/core/js/s_wrapper.js," said the HitmanPro blog. "It serves both Java (CVE-2013-0422) and PDF exploits. The exploit drops the Citadel Trojan, which is used for banking fraud and cyberespionage."
The?Java exploit?referred to, which affects Macs, Windows PCs and Linux boxes alike, was responsible for the recently announced hacks into Apple's, Facebook's and Twitter's employee networks.
[Why and How to Disable Java on Your Computer]
The HitmanPro posting noted that RedKit was also installing the ZeroAccess malware, which "moderates an affected user's Internet experience by modifying search results, and generates pay-per-click advertising revenue for its controllers," as well an unknown form of malware.
Stand-alone NBC TV network sites, such as those for "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" and one featuring "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno's collection of vintage cars, were also said to be compromised.
An NBC spokeswoman?confirmed the hacks to Bloomberg News. All the affected sites were cleaned and back up Friday morning.
(The NBCNews.com website, with which TechNewsDaily has a professional relationship, was not affected.)
Copyright 2013?TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/C_kLgwhVtAw/Hackers-target-visitors-to-NBC-s-site
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NASA and JPL contribute to European Jupiter mission
Feb. 21, 2013 ? NASA has selected key contributions to a 2022 European Space Agency (ESA) mission that will study Jupiter and three of its largest moons in unprecedented detail. The moons are thought to harbor vast water oceans beneath their icy surfaces.
NASA's contribution will consist of one U.S.-led science instrument and hardware for two European instruments to fly on ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission. Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will be the U.S. lead for the Radar for Icy Moon Exploration experiment. The radar experiment's principal investigator is Lorenzo Bruzzone of Universita degli Studi di Trento in Italy.
Under the lead of Bruzzone and the Italian Space Agency, JPL will provide the transmitter and receiver hardware for a radar sounder designed to penetrate the icy crust of Jupiter's moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto to a depth of about 5 miles (9 kilometers). This will allow scientists to see for the first time the underground structure of these tectonically complex and unique icy worlds.
JUICE will carry 11 experiments developed by scientific teams from 15 European countries, the United States and Japan.
The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter for three years and travel past Callisto and Europa multiple times, then orbit Ganymede, a moon larger than the planet Mercury. JUICE will conduct the first thorough exploration of Jupiter since NASA's Galileo mission from 1989-2003.
By studying the Jupiter system, JUICE will look to learn more about the formation and evolution of potentially habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond.
"NASA is thrilled to collaborate with ESA on this exciting mission to explore Jupiter and its icy moons," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington. "Working together with ESA and our other international partners is key to enabling future scientific progress in our quest to understand the cosmos."
The solar-powered spacecraft will carry cameras and spectrometers, a laser altimeter and an ice-penetrating radar instrument. The mission also will carry a magnetometer, plasma and particle monitors, and radio science hardware. The spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the Jupiter system in 2030.
"The selection of JUICE's instruments is a key milestone in ESA's flagship mission to the outer solar system, which represents an unprecedented opportunity to showcase leading European technological and scientific expertise," said Alvaro Gimenez Canete, ESA's director of science and robotic exploration.
NASA invited researchers in 2012 to submit proposals for NASA-provided instruments for the mission. Nine were reviewed, with one selected to fly. NASA agreed to provide critical hardware for two of the 10 selected European-led instruments. NASA's total contribution to the JUICE mission is $100 million for design, development and operation of the instruments through 2033.
In addition to the radar team and instrument, the NASA contributions are:
-- Ultraviolet Spectrometer: The principal investigator is Randy Gladstone of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. This spectrometer will acquire images to explore the surfaces and atmospheres of Jupiter's icy moons and how they interact with the Jupiter environment. The instrument also will determine how Jupiter's upper atmosphere interacts with its lower atmosphere below, and the ionosphere and magnetosphere above. The instrument will provide images of the aurora on Jupiter and Ganymede.
-- Particle Environment Package: The principal investigator is Stas Barabash of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. The U.S. lead is Pontus Brandt of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. Under the lead of Barabash and the Swedish National Space Board, APL will provide instruments to this suite to measure the neutral material and plasma that are accelerated and heated to extreme levels in Jupiter's fierce and complex magnetic environment.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate conducts a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system and the universe. The New Frontiers Program Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will manage the NASA contributions. JUICE is the first large-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Program.
For more information on NASA planetary programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .
For more information about the JUICE mission, visit: http://sci.esa.int/juice .
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/vfUjp6hAClM/130221214216.htm
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SD college tests fingerprint purchasing technology
Joseph Wright, associate vice president for research-economic development at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, poses Feb. 15, 2013. Wright's college has installed two Nexus pay pads, which scan fingerprints and detects hemoglobin to allow people to buy from select shops on campus. About 50 students and four faculty members at the school are enrolled in the pilot program that uses Biocryptology -- or one's fingerprint and hemoglobin -- in place of cash or credit cards. Wright says the program has so far been successful and he hopes to spread it campus-wide soon. (AP Photo, Amber Hunt)
Joseph Wright, associate vice president for research-economic development at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, poses Feb. 15, 2013. Wright's college has installed two Nexus pay pads, which scan fingerprints and detects hemoglobin to allow people to buy from select shops on campus. About 50 students and four faculty members at the school are enrolled in the pilot program that uses Biocryptology -- or one's fingerprint and hemoglobin -- in place of cash or credit cards. Wright says the program has so far been successful and he hopes to spread it campus-wide soon. (AP Photo, Amber Hunt)
Christopher Jacques, 22, uses his index finger to pay for an Italian soda at a coffee shop at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology on Feb. 15, 2013. Jacques, an electrical engineering major from Pacific, Wash., is one of about 50 students and four faculty members at the school enrolled in a pilot program that uses Biocryptology -- or one's fingerprint and hemoglobin -- in place of cash or credit cards to pay for items. (AP Photo, Amber Hunt)
About 50 students and four faculty members at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology use pay pads such as this one, shown in a Feb. 15, 2013, photograph, in place of cash or credit cards to pay for items. The pilot program using Biocryptology -- or one's fingerprint and hemoglobin -- to identify buyers. (AP Photo, Amber Hunt)
About 50 students and four faculty members at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology use pay pads such as this one, shown in a Feb. 15, 2013, photograph, in place of cash or credit cards to pay for items. The pilot program using Biocryptology -- or one's fingerprint and hemoglobin -- to identify buyers. (AP Photo, Amber Hunt)
Christopher Jacques, 22, uses his index finger to pay for an Italian soda at a coffee shop at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology on Friday Feb. 15, 2013. Jacques, an electrical engineering major from Pacific, Wash., is one of about 50 students and four faculty members at the school enrolled in a pilot program that uses Biocryptology -- or one's fingerprint and hemoglobin -- in place of cash or credit cards to pay for items. (AP Photo, Amber Hunt)
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) ? Futurists have long proclaimed the coming of a cashless society, where dollar bills and plastic cards are replaced by fingerprint and retina scanners smart enough to distinguish a living, breathing account holder from an identity thief.
What they probably didn't see coming was that one such technology would make its debut not in Silicon Valley or MIT but at a small state college in remote western South Dakota, 25 miles from Mount Rushmore.
Two shops on the School of Mines and Technology campus are performing one of the world's first experiments in Biocryptology ? a mix of biometrics (using physical traits for identification) and cryptology (the study of encoding private information). Students at the Rapid City school can buy a bag of potato chips with a machine that non-intrusively detects their hemoglobin to make sure the transaction is legitimate.
Researchers figure their technology would provide a critical safeguard against a morbid scenario sometimes found in spy movies in which a thief removes someone else's finger to fool the scanner.
On a recent Friday, mechanical engineering major Bernard Keeler handed a Red Bull to a cashier in the Miner's Shack campus shop, typed his birthdate into a pay pad and swiped his finger. Within seconds, the machine had identified his print and checked that blood was pulsing beneath it, allowing him to make the buy. Afterward, Keeler proudly showed off the receipt he was sent via email on his smartphone.
Fingerprint technology isn't new, nor is the general concept of using biometrics as a way to pay for goods. But it's the extra layer of protection ? that deeper check to ensure the finger has a pulse ? that researchers say sets this technology apart from already-existing digital fingerprint scans, which are used mostly for criminal background checks.
Al Maas, president of Nexus USA ? a subsidiary of Spanish-based Hanscan Indentity Management, which patented the technology ? acknowledged South Dakota might seem an unlikely locale to test it, but to him, it was a perfect fit.
"I said, if it flies here in the conservative Midwest, it's going to go anywhere," Maas said.
Maas grew up near Madison, S.D., and wanted his home state to be the technology's guinea pig. He convinced Hanscan owner Klaas Zwart that the 2,400-student Mines campus should be used as the starter location.
The students all major in mechanical engineering or hard sciences, which means they're naturally technologically inclined, said Joseph Wright, the school's associate vice president for research-economic development.
"South Dakota is a place where people take risks. We're very entrepreneurial," Wright said.
After Maas and Zwart introduced the idea to students this winter, about 50 stepped forward to take part in the pilot.
"I really wanted to be part of what's new and see if I could help improve what they already have," said Phillip Clemen, 19, a mechanical engineering student.
Robert Siciliano, a security expert with McAfee, Inc., minimized potential privacy concerns.
"We are hell bent on privacy issues here in the U.S. We get all up in arms when someone talks about scanning us or recording our information, but then we'll throw up everything about us on Facebook and give up all of our personal information for 10 percent off at a shoe store for instant credit," he said.
Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said fingerprint technology on its own raises security issues, but he called "liveness detection" a step in the right direction.
"Any security measure can be defeated; it's a question of making it harder," he said.
The key to keeping biometric identification from becoming Big Brother-like is to make it voluntary and ensure that the information scanned is used exactly as promised, Stanley said.
Brian Wiles, a Miles mechanical engineering major, said it's exciting to be beta testing technology that could soon be worldwide.
"There was some hesitation, but the fact that it's the first in the world ? that's the whole point of this school," said Wiles, 22. "We're innovators."
___
Follow Amber Hunt on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/reporteramber
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Human heart tissue development slower than other mammals
Thursday, February 21, 2013
The walls of the human heart are a disorganised jumble of tissue until relatively late in pregnancy despite having the shape of a fully functioning heart, according to a pioneering study.
A University of Leeds-led team developing the first comprehensive model of human heart development using observations of living foetal hearts found surprising differences from existing animal models.
Although they saw four clearly defined chambers in the foetal heart from the eighth week of pregnancy, they did not find organised muscle tissue until the 20th week, much later than expected.
Developing an accurate, computerised simulation of the foetal heart is critical to understanding normal heart development in the womb and, eventually, to opening new ways of detecting and dealing with some functional abnormalities early in pregnancy.
Studies of early heart development have previously been largely based on other mammals such as mice or pigs, adult hearts and dead human samples. The Leeds-led team is using scans of healthy foetuses in the womb, including one mother who volunteered to have detailed weekly ECG (electrocardiography) scans from 18 weeks until just before delivery.
This functional data is incorporated into a 3D computerised model built up using information about the structure, shape and size of the different components of the heart from two types of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans of dead foetuses' hearts.
Early results from the project, which involves researchers from Leeds, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Nottingham, the University of Manchester and the University of Sheffield, show that the human heart may develop on a different timeline from other mammals.
While the tissue in the walls of a pig heart develops a highly organised structure at a relatively early stage of a foetus's development, a paper from the Leeds-led team published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface Focusreports that the there is little organisation of the human heart's cells until 20 weeks into pregnancy.
A pig's pregnancy lasts about three months and the organised structure of the walls of the heart emerge in the first month of pregnancy. The new study only detected similar organised structures well into the second trimester of the human pregnancy. Human foetuses have a regular heartbeat from about 22 days.
Dr Eleftheria Pervolaraki, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds' School of Biomedical Sciences, said: "For a heart to be beating effectively, we thought you needed a smoothly changing orientation of the muscle cells through the walls of the heart chambers. Such an organisation is seen in the hearts of all healthy adult mammals.
"Foetal hearts in other mammals such as pigs, which we have been using as models, show such an organisation even early in gestation, with a smooth change in cell orientation going through the heart wall. But what we actually found is that such organisation was not detectable in the human foetus before 20 weeks," she said.
Professor Arun Holden, also from Leeds' School of Biomedical Sciences, said: "The development of the foetal human heart is on a totally different timeline, a slower timeline, from the model that was being used before. This upsets our assumptions and raises new questions. Since the wall of the heart is structurally disorganised, we might expect to find arrhythmias, which are a bad sign in an adult. It may well be that in the early stages of development of the heart arrhythmias are not necessarily pathological and that there is no need to panic if we find them. Alternatively, we could find that the disorganisation in the tissue does not actually lead to arrhythmia."
A detailed computer model of the activity and architecture of the developing heart will help make sense of the limited information doctors can obtain about the foetus using non-invasive monitoring of a pregnant woman.
Professor Holden said: "It is different from dealing with an adult, where you can look at the geometry of an individual's heart using MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or CT (Computerised Tomography) scans. You can't squirt x-rays at a foetus and we also currently tend to avoid MRI, so we need a model into which we can put the information we do have access to."
He added: "Effectively, at the moment, foetal ECGs are not really used. The textbooks descriptions of the development of the human heart are still founded on animal models and 19th century collections of abnormalities in museums. If you are trying to detect abnormal activity in foetal hearts, you are only talking about third trimester and postnatal care of premature babies. By looking at how the human heart actually develops in real life and creating a quantitative, descriptive model of its architecture and activity from the start of a pregnancy to birth, you are expanding electrocardiology into the foetus."
###
University of Leeds: http://www.leeds.ac.uk
Thanks to University of Leeds for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126956/Human_heart_tissue_development_slower_than_other_mammals
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