2012年1月3日星期二

Events are following the typical sequence for a zoonosis

The import of live, chilled and frozen poultry, and eggs, from within a 13-kilometer (8-mile) radius of the man’s home in Shenzhen were suspended for 21 days starting Jan. 1, moncler jackets according to a Centre for Food Safety statement posted on New Year’s Day. “It’s always the wild birds, then the poultry, then the humans,” Yuen Kwok-yung, chairman of infectious diseases at the University of Hong Kong’s department of microbiology, said in a phone interview yesterday. Events are following the typical sequence for a zoonosis, a disease that jumps to humans from animals, he said. Avian flu is a serious public health concern with the potential to cause a pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Since 2003, more than 500 people have been infected with the H5N1 strain worldwide, of whom about 60 percent have died, according to the Atlanta-based agency. Gene sequencing done on samples from the patient in Shenzhen shows the virus is “very similar” to strains recently detected in wild birds in Hong Kong, according to an e-mail from the city’s Department of Health yesterday. Two dead black-headed gulls found in Tuen Mun and Lantau Island in Hong Kong tested positive for the virus, according to a government statement yesterday. The birds were found Dec. 30 and Jan. 1. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department is conducting further tests on the animals. The mutated virus can’t be transmitted moncler outlet 2011 from human to human, Radio Television Hong Kong said Jan. 2, citing Wu Chunli, a technician at the Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Surveillance System Hong Kong slaughtered 19,451 birds, including more than 15,000 chickens, on Dec. 21 after the H5N1 virus was found in a chicken carcass at a local wholesale market. Based on sequencing results, a compound called amantadine may be effective against the virus. Results of the effectiveness of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu as a treatment are pending, Hong Kong’s Department of Health said. Public hospitals in the city activated the “serious” response level and enhanced surveillance after the government discovered the infected chicken carcass.Moncler shoes for men, cheap moncler men shoes 2011 sale, free shipping. “The system of surveillance in Hong Kong works very well,” HKU’s Yuen said.“You should not be unduly concerned but you really have to be careful and obey some simple measures,” including not touching wild and dead birds, and boiling food before eating, he said.

CES will be the coming-out party for Windows 8

CES will be the coming-out party for Windows 8, but the problem is that Microsoft isn't expected to begin the Beta process until more than a month later, making this show ill-timed for the announcement. Much like Apple did with MacWorld, Microsoft is calling this the last CES it will have a major part in, making this an historic event for the company cheap burberry. Windows 8 heralds a new class of computer called either "hybrid" or "crossover," depending on your predilection for automotive terms. This class was pioneered by the Asus Transformer, a tablet/laptop combination product designed to address the desire of many early iPad users to have the capabilities of an iPad and MacBook Air without having to carry both products at once. The iPad was often left at home cheap moncler. This new combination product promises to address this problem, but it will need to work through some interesting choices as it will come in both ARM (Nasdaq: ARMHY) and X86 platforms, and size is in flux. The size problem isn't trivial, because folks don't seem to like tablets over 11 inches or Laptops less than 12 inches, making a compromise on size difficult. Still, this is the form factor that will best highlight Windows 8 capabilities, and it is likely it will be the most interesting of the 2012 PC designs. I expect you'll see some early designs at CES as a result. USB Monitors One of the things that may make this new device class workable is the coming wave of USB portable monitors. I've been using one from Lenovo for much of this last month, and coupled with an ultrabook -- doubling the available screen real estate -- it is well worth the typical sub-US$200 price. It fully powers off the USB port and weighs in 2.4 lbs. with cover (1.8 without). I've generally been annoyed at working on the road because I use two 27-inch monitors in the office, and dropping down to a single sub-14-inch monitor is a huge pain. I think the option of doubling that on the road is well worth the $185 this monitor costs, and that this class of product could make the small screen on a hybrid/crossover-class product usable. Granted, you'd fall back to using a mouse or touchpad for stuff on the USB monitor, but it would allow you to work off reference material, play a video, or just monitor Twitter or Facebook much more easily moncler jackets.

2012年1月2日星期一

The anxiety level is heightened right now

As of 3 p.m. PST, GRAIL-A is in a 56-mile by 5,197-mile orbit around the moon that takes approximately 11.5 hours to complete. The spacecraft are on a mission to map lunar gravity in unprecedented detail moncler jackets, shedding light on the moon's composition, formation and evolution. "Our team may not get to partake in a traditional New Year's celebration, but I expect seeing our two spacecraft safely in lunar orbit should give us all the excitement and feeling of euphoria anyone in this line of work would ever need," said GRAIL project manager David Lehman, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in a statement. An anxious New Year's Eve The $496 million GRAIL mission launched on Sept. 10 and took a circuitous, and energy-efficient, route to the moon. Earth's nearest neighbor is just 240,000 miles away, but the two spacecraft will have put about 2.5 million miles on their odometers when they finally arrive. The long journey has given the mission team plenty of time to assess the probes' health and to power up their science gear, researchers said. Both spacecraft will make their orbital-insertion maneuvers automatically. Still, about 40 members of the GRAIL team will be monitoring the action over the weekend to make sure everything goes according to plan cheap moncler — and to jump in if it doesn't, Lehman told reporters Wednesday. Orbital insertion is a nerve-wracking part of any space mission, and GRAIL gives scientists and engineers twice as much to worry about. "The anxiety level is heightened right now, and it is more so than with other missions, because we do have two spacecraft to go into lunar orbit," Lehman said. "But we've been studying and working on this for three or four years — four years — and we're well-prepared for that." The fact that GRAIL-B will arrive about 24 hours after GRAIL-A should help streamline the process and calm some nerves. "The team will have time to rest between each event," Lehman said. Mapping lunar gravity Once they arrive at the moon, the GRAIL spacecraft will perform a series of additional burns to get closer and closer. By early March, they should be just 34 miles above the lunar surface, and that's when the probes' science campaign will begin. [Video: Grail's Mission to Map Moon Gravity] Grail-A and Grail-B will chase each other around the moon for 82 days, staying 75 to 225 miles apart. Regional differences in the moon's gravity will cause the two spacecraft to speed up or slow down slightly, changing the distance between them as they fly. Using microwave signals that they bounce back and forth to each other, GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B will gauge these distance variations constantly — and with incredible precision. The GRAIL probes will be able to determine how far apart they are to within a few microns, less than the width of a human red blood cell, researchers have said. Scientists will use the twin probes' measurements to construct extremely accurate maps of cheap burberry the lunar gravity field. These maps, in turn, should reveal the moon's structure in great detail, allowing scientists to draw insights about how the rocky body formed and how it has changed over time.

2011年12月31日星期六

Most of the blazes were started on automobiles

On Saturday night, firefighters rushed to multiple fires, quickly extinguishing a vehicle fire in a Hollywood carport and responding to another in the massive parking structure at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. Those blazes followed at least 38 other suspicious fires between Thursday night and Saturday morning with cheap burberry, making it the worst wave of arson since the 1992 riots. "Whoever is doing this is really messing with people's lives," said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Jamie Moore. Most of the blazes were started on automobiles, but some spread to homes and apartments. The attacks ranged from the Westside to Hollywood and from the San Fernando Valley south to Lennox. By Saturday night, the Los Angeles police and fire departments were leading a multi-agency campaign across the county. "We're pulling out all the stops," Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said. "We're hoping that the person or people responsible will be brought to swift and complete justice." Extra firefighters were reporting to stations across Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Burbank and Glendale, while investigators set up a telephone hotline, interviewed witnesses and ran down tips. Officials announced at least $35,000 in rewards for information leading to a conviction in the case. "We've reassigned detectives from Major Crimes Division and Robbery-Homicide, exclusively to find who's doing this," said LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith. "We've got dozens of detectives working around the clock." Police arrested two people Friday on suspicion of lighting fires, but said they were not suspects in the arson rampage. Based on witness interviews, authorities said they were searching for a man driving a white and tan mid-1990s Lexus ES300. However, the large number of fires sparked over the two-day period led law enforcement sources to speculate that more than one arsonist was at large. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was open, said it's possible some of the blazes were the work of copycats. The fires occurred when many people were enjoying the holidays with friends and family. Sidni Appleseed Myles, 42, said she heard an explosion in the carport underneath her North Hollywood apartment about 2 a.m. Saturday. Seeing the flames out the window, Myles ran outside in her nightgown with an out-of-town guest and her two teenage daughters, screaming, "Fire!" The tenants dashed out to find four cars engulfed in flames that then reached to the balcony and ignited an outer wall of Myles' apartment on Colfax Avenue. "You can't believe the inferno that was there. It was incredible," said her friend, Ray Carroll, a teacher from New Jersey. "I'm just glad to be alive," said Myles who loves cheap burberry outlet 2012. Carl Lybecker, 32, who lived next door to the Colfax apartments, said it was sheer luck that no one was injured. "The scary part is being so vulnerable in the middle of the night," he said. "These people woke up. But what if they were sleeping? What if they had been taking sleep medication?" A few blocks away in Valley Village, Josh Mills and his wife were alarmed about the fires in their old West Hollywood neighborhood as they watched the news Friday evening. "I can't believe this," Mills said. Then, as they slept around 2 a.m., someone pounded on their door and yelled, "Your car's on fire!" At first, Mills thought it might be a ruse for a home-invasion robbery. But his wife looked out the window and saw flames under his BMW sedan parked on the street.

2011年12月30日星期五

Its shares slipped 3 cents to $21.61 in aftermarket trading

Friday's announcement from the Food and Drug Administration that it has approved Pfizer Inc.'s best-selling Prevnar 13 vaccine for such use was widely anticipated. It comes moncler jackets a little more than a month after a panel of federal health experts voted overwhelmingly to recommend Prevnar 13 as a safe and effective vaccine to prevent the bacterial infections in adults. Prevnar 13 protects against 13 strains of pneumococcal bacteria, which cause meningitis, pneumonia and ear infections. It's already a standard vaccination for infants and young children, who are most vulnerable to infection. But the FDA said 300,000 adults 50 or older are hospitalized every year for pneumococcal pneumonia. "The FDA approval of Prevnar 13 for these adults offers the potential to contribute to the moncler vest health of millions of aging Americans," Ian Read, Pfizer's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. Some 5,000 older adults succumb to the disease annually, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevnar, which was first approved in 2000, is a conjugated vaccine, which means it contains pneumococcal bacteria bound to a protein. The addition of the protein helps the body's immune system recognize the bacteria, especially in babies. The drug also has received approval for adults 50 and older in the European Union, Australia, Mexico and more than 10 other countries, Pfizer said.Moncler jackets for women, cheap moncler women down jackets on sale. Pfizer is based in New York. Its shares slipped 3 cents to $21.61 in aftermarket trading. The stock ended the regular session down 7 cents at $21.64.