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2013-05-15

Flu in pregnancy may quadruple child's risk for bipolar disorder

May 14, 2013 — Pregnant mothers' exposure to the flu was associated with a nearly fourfold increased risk that their child would develop bipolar disorder in adulthood, in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings add to mounting evidence of possible shared underlying causes and illness processes with schizophrenia, which some studies have also linked to prenatal exposure to influenza.

"Prospective mothers should take common sense preventive measures, such as getting flu shots prior to and in the early stages of pregnancy and avoiding contact with people who are symptomatic," said Alan Brown, M.D., M.P.H, of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, a grantee of the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). "In spite of public health recommendations, only a relatively small fraction of such women get immunized. The weight of evidence now suggests that benefits of the vaccine likely outweigh any possible risk to the mother or newborn."

Brown and colleagues reported their findings online May 8, 2013 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Although there have been hints of a maternal influenza/bipolar disorder connection, the new study is the first to prospectively follow families in the same HMO, using physician-based diagnoses and structured standardized psychiatric measures. Access to unique Kaiser-Permanente, county and Child Health and Development Study databases made it possible to include more cases with detailed maternal flu exposure information than in previous studies.

Among nearly a third of all children born in a northern California county during 1959-1966, researchers followed, 92 who developed bipolar disorder, comparing rates of maternal flu diagnoses during pregnancy with 722 matched controls.

The nearly fourfold increased risk implicated influenza infection at any time during pregnancy, but there was evidence suggesting slightly higher risk if the flu occurred during the second or third trimesters. Moreover, the researchers linked flu exposure to a nearly sixfold increase in a subtype of bipolar disorder with psychotic features.

A previous study, by Brown and colleagues, in a related northern California sample, found a threefold increased risk for schizophrenia associated with maternal influenza during the first half of pregnancy. Autism has similarly been linked to first trimester maternal viral infections and to possibly related increases in inflammatory molecules.

"Future research might investigate whether this same environmental risk factor might give rise to different disorders, depending on how the timing of the prenatal insult affects the developing fetal brain," suggested Brown.

Bipolar disorder shares with schizophrenia a number of other suspected causes and illness features, the researchers note. For example, both share onset of symptoms in early adulthood, susceptibility genes, run in the same families, affect nearly one percent of the population, show psychotic behaviors and respond to antipsychotic medications.

Increasing evidence of such overlap between traditional diagnostic categories has led to the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project, which is laying the foundation for a new mental disorders classification system based on brain circuits and dimensional mechanisms that cut across traditional diagnostic categories.

The research was also funded by NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

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From ocean to land: The fishy origins of our hips

Tetrapods, or four-legged animals, first stepped onto land about 395 million years ago. This significant change was made possible by strong hipbones and a connection through the spine via an ilium -- features that were not present in the fish ancestors of tetrapods.

In a study published in the journal Evolution and Development, Dr Catherine Boisvert of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University, MacQuarie University's Professor Jean Joss and Professor Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University examined the hip structures of some of human's closest fish cousins.

They found the differences between us and them are not as great as they appear -- most of the key elements necessary for the transformation to human hips were actually already present in our fish ancestors.

Dr Boisvert and her collaborators compared the hip development -- bones and musculature -- of the Australian lung fish and the Axolotl, commonly known as the Mexican Walking Fish. The results showed that, surprisingly, the transition from simple fish hip to complex weight-bearing hip could be done in a few evolutionary steps.

"Many of the muscles thought to be 'new' in tetrapods evolved from muscles already present in lungfish. We also found evidence of a new, more simple path by which skeletal structures would have evolved," Dr Boisvert said.

The researchers found that the sitting bones would have evolved by the extension of the already existing pubis. The connection to the vertebral column could have evolved from an illiac process already present in fish.

"The transition from ocean-dwelling to land-dwelling animals was a major event in the evolution of terrestrial animals, including humans, and an altered hip was an essential enabling step," Dr Boisvert said.

"Our research shows that what initially appeared to be a large change in morphology could be done with relatively few developmental steps."

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2013-05-14

First X-class solar flares of 2013

May 14, 2013 — On May 13, 2013, the sun emitted an X2.8-class flare, peaking at 12:05 p.m. EDT. This is the the strongest X-class flare of 2013 so far, surpassing in strength the X1.7-class flare that occurred 14 hours earlier. It is the 16th X-class flare of the current solar cycle and the third-largest flare of that cycle. The second-strongest was an X5.4 event on March 7, 2012. The strongest was an X6.9 on Aug. 9, 2011.

The X2.8-class flare was also associated with a coronal mass ejection, or CME, another solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space, which can potentially affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. The CME was not Earth-directed, but could pass NASA's STEREO-B, Messenger and Spitzer spacecraft. Their mission operators have been notified. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left the sun at 1,200 miles per second beginning at 12:18 p.m. EDT. If warranted, operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from solar material.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. This disrupts the radio signals for as long as the flare is ongoing -- the radio blackout associated with this flare has since subsided.

The Impacts of Solar Flares

Some people worry that a gigantic "killer solar flare" could hurl enough energy to destroy Earth, but this is not actually possible.

"X-class" denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.

This flare erupted from an active region just out of sight over the left side of the sun, a region that will soon rotate into view. This region has produced two smaller M-class flares as well.

The May 12 flare was also associated with a coronal mass ejection, another solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space, which can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left the sun at 745 miles per second and is not Earth-directed, however its flank may pass by the STEREO-B and Spitzer spacecraft, and their mission operators have been notified. If warranted, operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from solar material. There is some particle radiation associated with this event, which is what can concern operators of interplanetary spacecraft since the particles can trip computer electronics on board.

Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment because the sun's normal 11-year activity cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum, which is expected in 2013. Humans have tracked the solar cycle continuously since it was discovered in 1843, and it is normal for there to be many flares a day during the sun's peak activity. The first X-class flare of the current solar cycle occurred on Feb. 15, 2011, and there have been another 15 X-class flares since, including this one. The largest X-class flare in this cycle was an X6.9 on Aug. 9, 2011.

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (http://swpc.noaa.gov) is the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

What is a solar flare?

For answers to these and other space weather questions, please visit the Space Weather Frequently Asked Questions page (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/spaceweather/index.html).

TAG:Solar Flare Sun Northern Lights Geomagnetic Storms Atmosphere Weather

玉器新流行：小型精品走俏市场

嘉德2013春拍拍品清乾隆白玉螭龙乾隆年制铭扳指

　　纵览最近几年拍场上成绩不俗的玉器,无论是皇帝玺印、扳指,还是插屏、如意,我们都能看出它们具有两个共同特点,那就是与以前流行的大型玉器相比,它们显得小巧玲珑但制作精美.

　　近年来的玉器拍卖市场上,以扳指、印章、插屏为代表的小型精品玉器开始受到投资者的关注,扳指,原是古人射箭时戴在大拇指上拉弓用的工具,由于满族尚骑射,清代男子喜欢以扳指作为装饰品,从清乾隆、嘉庆朝开始,扳指的实用性逐渐丧失,人们用各种美玉材料制作扳指,还在上面雕刻了龙马、花草、山水、人物、诗词等纹饰和图案.

　　近年来,样式小巧、工艺精湛的扳指受到市场青睐,价格一路攀升,一些雕工精细、严整,体积较小的插屏也有不错的市场表现.玉插屏是用玉雕琢成长方形或其他形状的薄片状,插于木座或玉石器座上用以装饰.清代玉插屏非常盛行,乾隆时常会以精雕紫檀插屏镶嵌珍罕玉石.除了扳指和插屏,造型小巧的如意也是很受藏家欢迎的一类小型精品玉器.由于寓意吉祥,古时许多皇室贵族、文人雅客都对收藏玉如意情有独钟.亮相拍场的各类玉如意无论是古物还是新工,都价值不菲,动辄以百万论身价,帝王玉玺和名人印章在拍场中一直成绩不俗.

　　然而玉器价格主要受雕工、玉料、时代等因素的影响,玉质、玉色、光泽、致密度、绺裂、玷污等等都是玉器鉴别玉材等级的重要因素,在不少收藏家看好小型精品玉市场发展前景的同时,也有业内人士提醒到,评价一件玉器的优良,“大小”并非决定性因素.

来源:新浪收藏

TAG:玉器新流行：小型精品走俏市场翡翠翡翠手镯中国翡翠网翡翠新闻

玩家两万买块毛料赌石转手卖10万

　　13日,文博会三联水晶玉石分会场出现“赌石”、“开门红”,该分会场的翡翠毛料成品公盘大会上,前来淘宝的莫先生当场从2万元的毛料中开出价值10万的墨翠宝料！

　　来自广州的莫先生是浸淫玉石行业20多年的“老手”,他在会场逛了一圈后,一块其貌不扬却标价2万的翡翠毛料引起他的注意.他熟练地打灯照皮,泼水看色,最后掂量几下便毫不犹豫地掏钱付账.随后,毛料被当场切开,经鉴定,竟是一块好水好种的墨翠宝料,很快就被人以10万元的高价买下.

　　据介绍,未经加工的毛料上面会有一层风化形成的“蒙皮”,让人看不到玉石本质,赌石就是隔着蒙皮,通过经验和运气判断玉石价值的一种高风险玉石交易.家住宝安的王先生,抱着“玩玩”的心态花800元买了3块毛料,竟幸运地从一块不到一千克的小玉石中开出了好料.他告诉记者,这块好料是运气的象征,他要摆在办公桌上给自己带来好运.据悉,三联水晶玉石文化村的翡翠毛料公盘将从即日持续到18日,市民们还可来尝试一下“赌石”的味道.(记者易芬见习记者郭斌)

来源:新浪收藏

TAG:玩家两万买块毛料赌石转手卖10万翡翠翡翠手镯中国翡翠网翡翠新闻

奇妙色彩稀缺产量帕拉伊巴碧玺

　　还没有哪次新宝石种的发现能教人如此身心激荡。太过奇妙的色彩，太过奇缺的产量，如果矿源就此打住，那它就永远只能是少数地质学家的标本，它的高价将不再有任何商业意义。一场大规模的寻宝就此展开，随着相同颜色、成分的宝石陆续发现，于是便引发起一场珠宝界关于帕拉伊巴定义的巨大争端！

ENZO 高级珠宝系列帕拉伊巴碧玺项链

　　专门为全球宝石实验室提供广泛而专业的宝石和宝石优化鉴定，以及钻石分级等服务的机构LMHC，致力于修订并提供全球化、标准化的宝石鉴定报告。目前LMHC发布的12份信息表中，有一份便是专为帕拉伊巴碧玺而设。在这份最后更新于2011年12月的第六版报告中，对帕拉伊巴碧玺进行了如下定义：帕拉伊巴碧玺是蓝色 ( 电光蓝、霓虹蓝、紫蓝色)、蓝绿色到绿蓝色或绿色的、呈现中等到高饱和色调(相对于其他各种电气石)的电气石，不论产自何处都主要含有铜 (Cu) 和锰 (Mn)。因这种宝石最初开采于巴西的帕拉伊巴，所以帕拉伊巴就是这种电气石的品种名。

　　换言之，帕拉伊巴只是这种宝石最初的产地和得名原因，而只要含有铜和锰且呈现上述色彩外观就能这样冠名。在报告的补充说明部分也进一步明确了这一点——帕拉伊巴碧玺是一种含铜和锰的电气石。该宝石种名称源于最初的开采地巴西帕拉伊巴，但如今可能开采自很多其他地方。

　　至此，尘埃落定——只要DNA 和长相同时达标，就可冠上“帕拉伊巴”的大名。实际上，在报告的注释里对颜色和产地的描述都留了一定的空间，所以说，到底是不是帕拉伊巴，关键的关键还是恒量元素。这样的结果既能最大限度地满足市场需求，又能保持宝石种的品质，可谓皆大欢喜。

Boucheron 宝诗龙Cameleon 系列手镯

　　LMHC究竟是何方神圣？

　　LMHC 是Laboratory Manua lHarmonisation Committee 的缩写，也就是“实验室指南协调委员会”，是专门为全球宝石实验室提供广泛而专业的宝石和宝石优化鉴定以及钻石分级等服务的机构。他们最主要的一项工作是对来自世界各地珠宝界的说法进行研究，综合之后专门修订并提供全球化的、标准化的宝石鉴定报告说辞。来自全球的5 家顶级宝石实验室成员每年会聚在一起讨论并对信息表做出调整，它们分别是意大利米兰的CISGEM、美国的卡尔斯巴德、纽约和泰国曼谷的GIA、泰国曼谷的GIT-Gem、瑞士卢塞恩的Gübelin 和瑞士巴塞尔的SSEF。

　　LMHC有多少可信度？

　　LMHC 最初是应GILC(GemstoneIndustry and Laboratory Committee宝石工业和实验室委员会)的需求而设立的，所以不会与任何商贸组织建立正式联系，这也在相当程度上保证了其公信力。为了促进全球珠宝界能使用更加客观适合的以及更准确的实验室成果，LMHC 会不断更新相关鉴定内容并制成标准信息表发布在其官网上，以期全球各地的人们都能及时获取当下最新的和实用的宝石信息。

TAG:帕拉伊巴宝石碧玺珠宝奇妙色彩稀缺产量帕拉伊巴碧玺

Oldest fossil hominin ear bones ever recovered: Discovery could yield important clues on human origins

May 13, 2013 — A new study, led by a Binghamton University anthropologist and published this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could shed new light on the earliest existence of humans. The study analyzed the tiny ear bones, the malleus, incus and stapes, from two species of early human ancestor in South Africa. The ear ossicles are the smallest bones in the human body and are among the rarest of human fossils recovered.

Unlike other bones of the skeleton, the ossicles are already fully formed and adult-sized at birth. This indicates that their size and shape is under very strong genetic control and, despite their small size, they hold a wealth of evolutionary information.

The study, led by Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam, was carried out by an international team of researchers from institutions in the US, Italy and Spain. They analyzed several auditory ossicles representing the early hominin species Paranthropus robustus and Australopithecus africanus. The new study includes the oldest complete ossicular chain (i.e. all three ear bones) of a fossil hominin ever recovered. The bones date to around two million years ago and come from the well-known South African cave sites of Swartkrans and Sterkfontein, which have yielded abundant fossils of these early human ancestors.

The researchers report several significant findings from the study. The malleus is clearly human-like, and its size and shape can be easily distinguished from our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. Many aspects of the skull, teeth and skeleton in these early human ancestors remain quite primitive and ape-like, but the malleus is one of the very few features of these early hominins that is similar to our own species, Homo sapiens. Since both the early hominin species share this human-like malleus, the anatomical changes in this bone must have occurred very early in our evolutionary history. Says Quam, "Bipedalism (walking on two feet) and a reduction in the size of the canine teeth have long been held up as the "hallmark of humanity" since they seem to be present in the earliest human fossils recovered to date.

Our study suggests that the list may need to be updated to include changes in the malleus as well." More fossils from even earlier time periods are needed to corroborate this assertion, says Quam. In contrast to the malleus, the two other ear ossicles, the incus and stapes, appear more similar to chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. The ossicles, then, show an interesting mixture of ape-like and human-like features.

The anatomical differences from humans found in the ossicles, along with other differences in the outer, middle and inner ear, are consistent with different hearing capacities in these early hominin taxa compared to modern humans. Although the current study does not demonstrate this conclusively, the team plans on studying the functional aspects of the ear in these early hominins relying on 3D virtual reconstructions based on high resolution CT scans. The team has already applied this approach previously to the 500,000 year-old human fossils from the Sierra de Atapuerca in northern Spain. The fossils from this site represent the ancestors of the Neandertals, but the results suggested their hearing pattern already resembled Homo sapiens. Extending this type of analysis to Australopithecus and Paranthropus should provide new insight into when our modern human pattern of hearing may have evolved.

TAG:Early Humans Human Evolution Anthropology Fossils Cultures Evolution

腕间的那枚魔力手环

　　在珠宝中，手环是一个女人的第二双手臂，它能散发魔力，把不同女人的性格特质修饰得更加完美，也让越来越多的女人达成了一种共识，手环的光芒并非仅仅来自它的体积或是钻石数目的多寡。每个创意都让它像一滴晶莹光亮的水滴，或是热烈的爱情那样，引人入胜。

TANGO GOLD系列手链POMELLATO

STARRYNIGHT系列手链 MIKIMOTO

　　金色的爱情密码

　　在所有爱情故事中，男女主人公历尽千辛万苦最终修成正果时，都喜欢用金色的背影来表达，或许，金色就是让人充满希望与圆满的代名词。

　　Mikimoto StarryNight系列手链的设计灵感来自蒲公英，名字源自法语 dent-de-lion。被风吹散的白色蒲公英化身为许多带着种子的小白伞在高空飞扬，为所到之处散发崭新的生机，也象征着佩戴者的乐观情怀。粉红金和日本Akoya珍珠的搭配，充满精致高雅的气息。Pomellato哑光宽手链以18K玫瑰金打造。品牌一直秉承严谨、扎实的信念，在制作时，每个链环的内部也填满玫瑰金，为了达到轻巧的特点，在工艺中必须将链环压到很扁很薄，来充分体现出轻盈的质感，展示出大尺寸珠宝的别样风情。

黑丝手链 WELLENDORFF

ENCHANTED LOTUS系列手镯 DE BEERS

　　银色的承诺

　　承诺，往往都是银色的，纯净的几乎不含任何杂质，让人忍不住去眺望、触碰。

　　Wellendorff黑丝手链如品牌每条金丝编花手链一样，白金线以直径仅为0.3毫米的手工缠绕，饰以细小的螺旋纹，最终达到丝绸般柔软而坚韧的触感。优雅质朴的白金及黑色冷珐琅诉说着经典与神秘。制作中将纤细的雕刻花纹刻画在纯洁的黑色冷珐琅上，以钻石镶边作为装饰，素净中增添了几分高贵。De Beers Enchanted Lotus系列手镯纯净优雅的莲花造型，代表着母爱的圣洁。品牌将母爱化作传世的珍宝，用唯美的钻石珠宝倾诉对母亲的深深祝福。密镶钻石的莲花造型别具匠心，完美展现De Beers珠宝精湛细腻的镶嵌工艺。钻石莲花与钻石水珠相连也象征着自然界的万物重生。

ANIMAL WORLD系列手镯 CHOPARD

ENCHANT系列手镯 TIFFANY&CO

　　彩色的幻想梦

　　梦，注定终身与女人相伴。不真实，但却美好。企图清醒，却无法自拔。

　　Tiffany&Co. Enchant系列手镯从19世纪传统花园大门上精雕细琢的对称图案中汲取灵感，令人宛若置身于曼妙迷人的自然仙境。设计师以白色和彩色钻石打造出飘逸卷曲的华美线条，轻盈灵动的自然气息跃然呈现，展现出大自然的蓬勃生机与斑斓之美。Chopard Animal World系列手镯，以8克拉黑钻、紫水晶、祖母绿、蓝宝石、石榴石、天蓝石呈现的甲虫，栩栩如生。旁边的气泡以18k白金镶满白钻和黑钻打造，中间是表盘，一举多得。多种颜色搭配，仿佛夏夜里深蓝色天宇下闪耀着的繁星，多彩多姿。

TAG:手环钻石手链珠宝腕间的那枚魔力手环

Seabird bones reveal changes in open-ocean food chain

A research team, led by Michigan State University and Smithsonian Institution scientists, analyzed the bones of Hawaiian petrels -- birds that spend the majority of their lives foraging the open waters of the Pacific. They found that the substantial change in petrels' eating habits, eating prey that are lower rather than higher in the food chain, coincides with the growth of industrialized fishing.

The birds' dramatic shift in diet, shown in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, leaves scientists pondering the fate of petrels as well as wondering how many other species face similar challenges.

"Our bone record is alarming because it suggests that open-ocean food webs are changing on a large scale due to human influence," said Peggy Ostrom, co-author and MSU zoologist. "Our study is among the first to address one of the great mysteries of biological oceanography -- whether fishing has gone beyond an influence on targeted species to affect nontarget species and potentially, entire food webs in the open ocean."

Hawaiian petrels' diet is recorded in the chemistry of their bones. By studying the bones' ratio of nitrogen-15 and nitrogen-14 isotopes, researchers can tell at what level in the food chain the birds are feasting; generally, the larger the isotope ratio, the bigger the prey (fish, squid and crustaceans).

Between 4,000 and 100 years ago, petrels had high isotope ratios, indicating they ate bigger prey. After the onset of industrial fishing, which began extending past the continental shelves around 1950, the isotope ratios declined, indicating a species-wide shift to a diet of smaller fish and other prey.

Much research has focused on the impact of fishing near the coasts. In contrast, the open ocean covers nearly half of Earth's surface. But due to a lack of historical records, fishing's impact on most open-ocean animal populations is completely unknown, said lead author Anne Wiley, formerly an MSU doctoral student and now a Smithsonian postdoctoral researcher.

"Hawaiian petrels spend the majority of their lives foraging over vast expanses of open ocean," she said. "In their search for food, they've done what scientists can only dream of. For thousands of years, they've captured a variety of fish, squid and crustaceans from a large portion of the North Pacific Ocean, and a record of their diet is preserved in their bones."

Addressing fishery impact through a chronology of bones is remarkable. Most marine animals die at sea, where their bones are buried on the ocean bottom. But after three decades of fossil collection in the Hawaiian Islands -- the breeding grounds of the Hawaiian petrel -- co-author Helen James of the Smithsonian Institution and her colleagues have amassed a collection of more than 17,000 ancient Hawaiian petrel bones.

"The petrels breed in burrows and caves where, if they die, their bones are likely to be preserved for a long time," James said. "It's fortuitous to find such a rich bone record for a rare oceanic predator."

Further studies are needed to explore how the shift down the food chain is affecting Hawaiian petrels. For a coastal seabird, however, a similar shift in diet has been associated with decreases in population -- bad news for a federally protected bird.

Since petrels exploit fishing grounds from the equator to near the Aleutian Islands -- an area larger than the continental United States -- their foraging habits are quite telling. If petrels, signal flares for open-ocean food webs, have had a species-wide change in feeding habits, how many other predators around the world has fishing impacted? And what role do consumers play?

"What you choose to put on your dinner plate -- that's your connection with the endangered Hawaiian petrel, and with many other marine species," Wiley said.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, MSU and the Smithsonian Institution.

TAG:Fish Marine Biology Fisheries Oceanography Ecology Geography

Scientists find extensive glacial retreat in Mount Everest region

Members of the team conducting these studies will present their findings on May 14 at the Meeting of the Americas in Cancun, Mexico -- a scientific conference organized and co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union.

Glaciers in the Mount Everest region have shrunk by 13 percent in the last 50 years and the snowline has shifted upward by 180 meters (590 feet), according to Sudeep Thakuri, who is leading the research as part of his PhD graduate studies at the University of Milan in Italy.

Glaciers smaller than one square kilometer are disappearing the fastest and have experienced a 43 percent decrease in surface area since the 1960s. Because the glaciers are melting faster than they are replenished by ice and snow, they are revealing rocks and debris that were previously hidden deep under the ice. These debris-covered sections of the glaciers have increased by about 17 percent since the 1960s, according to Thakuri. The ends of the glaciers have also retreated by an average of 400 meters since 1962, his team found.

The researchers suspect that the decline of snow and ice in the Everest region is from human-generated greenhouse gases altering global climate. However, they have not yet established a firm connection between the mountains' changes and climate change, Thakuri said.

He and his team determined the extent of glacial change on Everest and the surrounding 1,148 square kilometer (713 square mile) Sagarmatha National Park by compiling satellite imagery and topographic maps and reconstructing the glacial history. Their statistical analysis shows that the majority of the glaciers in the national park are retreating at an increasing rate, Thakuri said.

To evaluate the temperature and precipitation patterns in the area, Thakuri and his colleagues have been analyzing hydro-meteorological data from the Nepal Climate Observatory stations and Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. The researchers found that the Everest region has undergone a 0.6 degree Celsius (1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperature and 100 millimeter (3.9 inches) decrease in precipitation during the pre-monsoon and winter months since 1992.

In subsequent research, Thakuri plans on exploring the climate-glacier relationship further with the aim of integrating the glaciological, hydrological and climatic data to understand the behavior of the hydrological cycle and future water availability.

"The Himalayan glaciers and ice caps are considered a water tower for Asia since they store and supply water downstream during the dry season," said Thakuri. "Downstream populations are dependent on the melt water for agriculture, drinking, and power production."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Water Research Institute-Italian National Research Council are funding this research.

TAG:Global Warming Ice Ages Climate Snow and Avalanches Water Environmental Issues

Out of sync: Body clocks altered at cell level in depression

May 13, 2013 — Every cell in our bodies runs on a 24-hour clock, tuned to the night-day, light-dark cycles that have ruled us since the dawn of humanity. The brain acts as timekeeper, keeping the cellular clock in sync with the outside world so that it can govern our appetites, sleep, moods and much more.

But new research shows that the clock may be broken in the brains of people with depression -- even at the level of the gene activity inside their brain cells.

It's the first direct evidence of altered circadian rhythms in the brain of people with depression, and shows that they operate out of sync with the usual ingrained daily cycle. The findings, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, come from scientists from the University of Michigan Medical School and other institutions.

The discovery was made by sifting through massive amounts of data gleaned from donated brains of depressed and non-depressed people. With further research, the findings could lead to more precise diagnosis and treatment for a condition that affects more than 350 million people worldwide.

What's more, the research also reveals a previously unknown daily rhythm to the activity of many genes across many areas of the brain -- expanding the sense of how crucial our master clock is.

In a normal brain, the pattern of gene activity at a given time of the day is so distinctive that the authors could use it to accurately estimate the hour of death of the brain donor, suggesting that studying this "stopped clock" could conceivably be useful in forensics. By contrast, in severely depressed patients, the circadian clock was so disrupted that a patient's "day" pattern of gene activity could look like a "night" pattern -- and vice versa.

The team uses material from donated brains obtained shortly after death, along with extensive clinical information about the individual. Numerous regions of each brain are dissected by hand or even with lasers that can capture more specialized cell types, then analyzed to measure gene activity. The resulting flood of information is picked apart with advanced data-mining tools.

Lead author Jun Li, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the U-M Department of Human Genetics, describes how this approach allowed the team to accurately back-predict the hour of the day when each non-depressed individual died -- literally plotting them out on a 24-hour clock by noting which genes were active at the time they died. They looked at 12,000 gene transcripts isolated from six regions of 55 brains from people who did not have depression.

This provided a detailed understanding of how gene activity varied throughout the day in the brain regions studied. But when the team tried to do the same in the brains of 34 depressed individuals, the gene activity was off by hours. The cells looked as if it were an entirely different time of day.

"There really was a moment of discovery," says Li, who led the analysis of the massive amount of data generated by the rest of the team and is a research assistant professor in U-M's Department of Computational Medicine at Bioinformatics. "It was when we realized that many of the genes that show 24-hour cycles in the normal individuals were well-known circadian rhythm genes -- and when we saw that the people with depression were not synchronized to the usual solar day in terms of this gene activity. It's as if they were living in a different time zone than the one they died in."

Huda Akil, Ph.D., the co-director of the U-M Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute and co-director of the U-M site of the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium, notes that the findings go beyond previous research on circadian rhythms, using animals or human skin cells, which were more easily accessible than human brain tissues.

"Hundreds of new genes that are very sensitive to circadian rhythms emerged from this research -- not just the primary clock genes that have been studied in animals or cell cultures, but other genes whose activity rises and falls throughout the day," she says. "We were truly able to watch the daily rhythm play out in a symphony of biological activity, by studying where the clock had stopped at the time of death. And then, in depressed people, we could see how this was disrupted."

Now, she adds, scientists must use this information to help find new ways to predict depression, fine-tune treatment for each depressed patient, and even find new medications or other types of treatment to develop and test. One possibility, she notes, could be to identify biomarkers for depression -- telltale molecules that can be detected in blood, skin or hair.

And, the challenge of determining why the circadian clock is altered in depression still remains. "We can only glimpse the possibility that the disruption seen in depression may have more than one cause. We need to learn more about whether something in the nature of the clock itself is affected, because if you could fix the clock you might be able to help people get better," Akil notes.

The team continues to mine their data for new findings, and to probe additional brains as they are donated and dissected. The high quality of the brains, and the data gathered about how their donors lived and died, is essential to the project, Akil says. Even the pH level of the tissue, which can be affected by the dying process and the time between death and freezing tissue for research, can affect the results. The team also will have access to blood and hair samples from new donors.

The researchers note that the Pritzker funding in combination with federal research funding made it possible for the scientists to study this issue in an exploratory way. The research was historically funded by a Conte Center grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, and partly funded by the William Lion Penzner Foundation, the Della Martin Foundation, the Office of Naval Research (N00014-09-1-059 and N00014-12-1-0366), the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression's Abramson Family Foundation Investigator Award, and an International Mental Health Research Organization -- Johnson & Johnson Rising Star Translational Research Award.

The work was funded in large part by the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Fund, and involved researchers from the University of Michigan, University of California's Irvine and Davis campuses, Weill Cornell Medical College, the Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, and Stanford University.

In addition to Li and Akil, the study's authors are Blynn G. Bunney, Fan Meng, Megan H. Hagenauer, David M. Walsh, Marquis P. Vawter, Simon J. Evans, Prabakhara V. Choudary, Preston Cartagena, Jack D. Barchas, Alan F. Schatzberg, the late Edward G. Jones, Richard M. Myers, U-M MBNI co-director Stanley J. Watson, Jr., and William E. Bunney.

TAG:Mental Health Research Brain Tumor Genes Depression Mental Health Intelligence

Brain frontal lobes not sole center of human intelligence, comparative research suggests

Research into the comparative size of the frontal lobes in humans and other species has determined that they are not -- as previously thought -- disproportionately enlarged relative to other areas of the brain, according to the most accurate and conclusive study of this area of the brain.

It concludes that the size of our frontal lobes cannot solely account for humans' superior cognitive abilities.

The study by Durham and Reading universities suggests that supposedly more 'primitive' areas, such as the cerebellum, were equally important in the expansion of the human brain. These areas may therefore play unexpectedly important roles in human cognition and its disorders, such as autism and dyslexia, say the researchers.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) today.

The frontal lobes are an area in the brain of mammals located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere, and are thought to be critical for advanced intelligence.

Lead author Professor Robert Barton from the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, said: "Probably the most widespread assumption about how the human brain evolved is that size increase was concentrated in the frontal lobes.

"It has been thought that frontal lobe expansion was particularly crucial to the development of modern human behaviour, thought and language, and that it is our bulging frontal lobes that truly make us human. We show that this is untrue: human frontal lobes are exactly the size expected for a non-human brain scaled up to human size.

"This means that areas traditionally considered to be more primitive were just as important during our evolution. These other areas should now get more attention. In fact there is already some evidence that damage to the cerebellum, for example, is a factor in disorders such as autism and dyslexia."

The scientists argue that many of our high-level abilities are carried out by more extensive brain networks linking many different areas of the brain. They suggest it may be the structure of these extended networks more than the size of any isolated brain region that is critical for cognitive functioning.

Previously, various studies have been conducted to try and establish whether humans' frontal lobes are disproportionately enlarged compared to their size in other primates such as apes and monkeys. They have resulted in a confused picture with use of different methods and measurements leading to inconsistent findings.

TAG:Neuroscience Intelligence Language Acquisition Mice Behavioral Science Nature

Grammar errors? The brain detects them even when you are unaware

Participants in the study -- native-English speaking people, ages 18-30 -- had their brain activity recorded using electroencephalography, from which researchers focused on a signal known as the Event-Related Potential (ERP). This non-invasive technique allows for the capture of changes in brain electrical activity during an event. In this case, events were short sentences presented visually one word at a time.

Subjects were given 280 experimental sentences, including some that were syntactically (grammatically) correct and others containing grammatical errors, such as "We drank Lisa's brandy by the fire in the lobby," or "We drank Lisa's by brandy the fire in the lobby." A 50 millisecond audio tone was also played at some point in each sentence. A tone appeared before or after a grammatical faux pas was presented. The auditory distraction also appeared in grammatically correct sentences.

This approach, said lead author Laura Batterink, a postdoctoral researcher, provided a signature of whether awareness was at work during processing of the errors. "Participants had to respond to the tone as quickly as they could, indicating if its pitch was low, medium or high," she said. "The grammatical violations were fully visible to participants, but because they had to complete this extra task, they were often not consciously aware of the violations. They would read the sentence and have to indicate if it was correct or incorrect. If the tone was played immediately before the grammatical violation, they were more likely to say the sentence was correct even it wasn't."

When tones appeared after grammatical errors, subjects detected 89 percent of the errors. In cases where subjects correctly declared errors in sentences, the researchers found a P600 effect, an ERP response in which the error is recognized and corrected on the fly to make sense of the sentence.

When the tones appear before the grammatical errors, subjects detected only 51 percent of them. The tone before the event, said co-author Helen J. Neville, who holds the UO's Robert and Beverly Lewis Endowed Chair in psychology, created a blink in their attention. The key to conscious awareness, she said, is based on whether or not a person can declare an error, and the tones disrupted participants' ability to declare the errors. But, even when the participants did not notice these errors, their brains responded to them, generating an early negative ERP response. These undetected errors also delayed participants' reaction times to the tones.

"Even when you don't pick up on a syntactic error your brain is still picking up on it," Batterink said. "There is a brain mechanism recognizing it and reacting to it, processing it unconsciously so you understand it properly."

The study was published in the May 8 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

The brain processes syntactic information implicitly, in the absence of awareness, the authors concluded. "While other aspects of language, such as semantics and phonology, can also be processed implicitly, the present data represent the first direct evidence that implicit mechanisms also play a role in the processing of syntax, the core computational component of language."

It may be time to reconsider some teaching strategies, especially how adults are taught a second language, said Neville, a member of the UO's Institute of Neuroscience and director of the UO's Brain Development Lab.

Children, she noted, often pick up grammar rules implicitly through routine daily interactions with parents or peers, simply hearing and processing new words and their usage before any formal instruction. She likened such learning to "Jabberwocky," the nonsense poem introduced by writer Lewis Carroll in 1871 in "Through the Looking Glass," where Alice discovers a book in an unrecognizable language that turns out to be written inversely and readable in a mirror.

For a second language, she said, "Teach grammatical rules implicitly, without any semantics at all, like with jabberwocky. Get them to listen to jabberwocky, like a child does."

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health supported the research (grant 5R01DC000128).

TAG:Language Acquisition Perception Intelligence Child Development Neuroscience Brain Injury

Reversing paralysis with a restorative gel

Now a team of Tel Aviv University researchers, including Dr. Shimon Rochkind of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Prof. Zvi Nevo of TAU's Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, has invented a method for repairing damaged peripheral nerves. Through a biodegradable implant in combination with a newly-developed Guiding Regeneration Gel (GRG) that increases nerve growth and healing, the functionality of a torn or damaged nerve could ultimately be restored.

This innovative project is now gaining international recognition. Its initial successes were reported at several recent scientific congresses, including the World Federation of Neurological Societies and the European Neurological Society. And the therapy, already tested in animal models, is only a few years away from clinical use, says Dr. Rochkind.

Like healing in the womb

A nerve is like an electrical cable. When severed or otherwise damaged, power can no longer be transferred and the cable loses its functionality. Similarly, a damaged nerve loses the ability to transfer signals for movement and feeling through the nervous system.

But Dr. Rochkind and Prof. Nevo found a way to breach the gap. In their method, two severed ends of a damaged nerve are reconnected by implanting a soft, biodegradable tube, which serves as a bridge to help the nerve ends connect. The innovative gel which lines the inside of the tube nurtures nerve fibers' growth, encouraging the nerve to reconnect the severed ends through the tube, even in cases with massive nerve damage, Dr. Rochkind says.

The key lies in the composition of the gel, the researchers say, which has three main components: anti-oxidants, which exhibit high anti-inflammatory activities; synthetic laminin peptides, which act as a railway or track for the nerve fibers to grow along; and hyaluronic acid, commonly found in the human fetus, which serves as a buffer against drying, a major danger for most implants. These components allow the nerve to heal the way a fetus does in the womb -- quickly and smoothly.

Keeping cells safe for transplant

The implant has already been tested in animal models, and the gel by itself can be used as a stand-alone product, acting as an aid to cell therapy. GRG is not only able to preserve cells, it can support their survival while being used for therapy and transplantation, says Dr. Rochkind. When grown in the gel, cells show excellent development, as well as intensive fiber growth. This could have implications for the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson's, for which researchers are actively exploring cell therapy as a potential solution.

TAG:Neuropathy Nervous System Disability Brain Injury Dementia Depression

‘Sentrollers’ taking over from ‘People’ as the majority population on the Internet, says GreenPeak Technologies

GreenPeak Technologies has released a white paper called “Sentrollers and the Internet of Things” where it defines Sentrollers as a new, all-encompassing term for sensors, actuators and controllers – the various devices that make up the new Internet of Things.

The white paper also describes the important role of ZigBee, the technology of choice for the Smart Home, as the crucial enabler for the development of the Internet of Things.

Most of the end-nodes on the internet today are people using PCs, laptops and smart phones. However this is rapidly changing as more devices in the home are connecting to the internet, building the Smart Home, and starting to shift the balance away from people towards connected things.

These devices are usually sensors, controllers, actuators or combinations that together, can be considered as “Sentrollers”. For instance: a thermostat senses the temperature, compares this with a desired temperature and activates a heater or air conditioner, controlling, essentially “sentrolling”, the temperature. The Smart Home will also accelerate the use of sentrollers beyond the home: in building automation, for the smart grid, and from there in logistical, industrial and agricultural applications.

Multi-Service Operators (MSOs) are driving the Smart Home applications already through their service offerings, like security, energy management and home care. The number of devices connecting to the internet is steadily growing by several millions per week – a quiet revolution going on. The wireless access technology for the Smart Home is ZigBee, the open worldwide IEEE standard, equivalent to WiFi.

WiFi guarantees reliable high data rate connectivity for content sharing and distribution. ZigBee, with its low power and meshing capabilities is ideally suited as access technology for “sentrollers” processing low data rate communication packets from these wireless devices on life-long batteries. Just like WiFi was a real milestone starting the use of internet at home, the Internet of Things with ZigBee has started at home as well, enabling the next wave in the technology revolution.

“The number of things connected to the internet will soon surpass the number of people and in the future sentrollers will dominate the Internet of Things.” says Cees Links, Founder and CEO of GreenPeak Technologies. “Industry analysts predict factors of 100 things for 1 person when the Internet of People transforms into the Internet of Things. In the same way as WiFi today is synonymous for wireless internet (of People), ZigBee is becoming synonymous for the wireless Internet of Things, making it possible for “any-Thing” to seamlessly connect to the Internet without worries about power or battery life.”

The white paper on “Sentrollers and the Internet of Things” is available for download from the GreenPeak website and explains how ZigBee wireless technology plays a crucial role in the foundation and establishment of the Internet of Things.

Visit GreenPeak Technologies at www.greenpeak.com

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

TAG:Sentrollers Internet of Things sensors controllers white paper ZigBee smart home Greenpeak

Micromachining: Inclinations sounded out

Echolocation is a powerful technique that uses sound or ultrasound waves to locate objects and surfaces. Ships and submarines, for example, use it to avoid collisions, and dolphins and microbats use it to locate prey (see image). Hongbin Yu and co-workers from the A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics, Singapore, have now used echolocation to measure the inclination of millimeter-sized ultrasonic sensors. In this new setting, their technique should extend the capabilities of devices that already use ultrasonic components, whether for locating defects in materials, visualizing anatomical structures or determining range.

Yu and his co-workers built on the success that so-called 'capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers' (CMUTs) have achieved over the past decade in generating and detecting ultrasound signals. These devices are fabricated using silicon micromachining technology, so the components are very compact and can be conveniently integrated with standard electronics components, which are also based on silicon.

"Our main goal was to explore a new application of the CMUT device," says Yu. Consequently, the researchers harnessed these ultrasonic components for measuring tilt angles. They used three micromachined CMUTs -- two senders and a common receiver -- each measuring less than a tenth of a millimeter across. To test this array, they immersed it in a bath filled with oil. As they tilted the device, the oil surface stayed level -- in the same manner that the water surface in a tilted glass would remain horizontal. However, the distances between the surface and the sensors at the bottom changed such that one sensor became closer to the surface than the other.

By measuring how long it took the ultrasound waves to travel from each of the senders to the receiver, via the oil surface where the waves were reflected, Yu and his co-workers could accurately determine the distances between the sensors and the surface. They could then calculate the tilt angle that the CMUT array had relative to the oil surface.

As many devices already contain ultrasonic components, the new sensor should be useful in a number of applications, according to Yu. "As one example, in an automotive robotic arm equipped with ultrasound transducers for fault detection, a tilt-sensing function should help improve the arm-control accuracy without greatly increasing the complexity of the device," he explains.

Other areas where tilt-angle measurements are important include level determination for instrumentation and motion-state monitoring. With the team's innovation, such functionality may now be added to ultrasonic medical-imaging and non-destructive materials-testing devices.

TAG:Detectors Electronics Ultrasound Medical Technology Nature of Water Technology

Terahertz technology: Seeing more with less

May 13, 2013 — Single-chip integration of the components needed for sending and receiving terahertz radiation should help applications in imaging and communication

Terahertz technology is an emerging field that promises to improve a host of useful applications, ranging from passenger scanning at airports to huge digital data transfers. Terahertz radiation sits between the frequency bands of microwaves and infrared radiation, and it can easily penetrate many materials, including biological tissue. The energy carried by terahertz radiation is low enough to pose no risk to the subject or object under investigation.

Before terahertz technology can take off on a large scale, however, developers need new kinds of devices that can send and receive radiation in this frequency range. Worldwide, electronic engineers are developing such devices. Now, Sanming Hu and co-workers from the A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (IME), Singapore, have designed novel circuits and antennas for terahertz radiation and efficiently integrated these components into a transmitter-receiver unit on a single chip. Measuring just a few millimeters across, this area is substantially smaller than the size of current commercial devices. As such, it represents an important step towards the development of practical terahertz technologies.

Hu and his co-workers based their terahertz design on a fabrication technology known as BiCMOS, which enables full integration of devices on a single chip of only a few cubic millimeters in size. "Currently, commercial products for terahertz technologies use discrete modules that are assembled into a device," explains Hu. These module-based devices tend to be considerably more bulky than fully integrated systems.

"In a commercial terahertz transmitter-receiver unit, the central module alone measures typically around 190 by 80 by 65 millimeters, which is roughly 1 million cubic millimeters," says Hu. The novel design of Hu's team unites the essential components of a terahertz device in a smaller two-dimensional area of just a few millimeters along each side. According to Hu and his co-workers, this compact device paves the way towards the mass production of a fully integrated terahertz system.

As the next step, the team will use the IME's cutting-edge technologies to build more complex structures composed of several two-dimensional layers, which will be based on their new designs. Although the team is not pursuing any specific applications, their devices potentially open up a wide range of possibilities. These include wireless short-range transfers of data sets -- the content of a Blu-ray disc could be sent in as little as a few seconds, for example -- high-resolution biosensing, risk-free screening of patients and passengers, and see-through-envelope imaging (see image).

TAG:Technology Electronics Medical Technology Aviation Biometric Batteries

2013-05-13

Solar panels as inexpensive as paint?

May 13, 2013 — Most Americans want the U.S. to place more emphasis on developing solar power, recent polls suggest. A major impediment, however, is the cost to manufacture, install and maintain solar panels. Simply put, most people and businesses cannot afford to place them on their rooftops.

Fortunately, that is changing because researchers such as Qiaoqiang Gan, University at Buffalo assistant professor of electrical engineering, are helping develop a new generation of photovoltaic cells that produce more power and cost less to manufacture than what's available today.

One of the more promising efforts, which Gan is working on, involves the use of plasmonic-enhanced organic photovoltaic materials. These devices don't match traditional solar cells in terms of energy production but they are less expensive and -- because they are made (or processed) in liquid form -- can be applied to a greater variety of surfaces.

Gan detailed the progress of plasmonic-enhanced organic photovoltaic materials in the May 7 edition of the journal Advanced Materials. Co-authors include Filbert J. Bartoli, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Lehigh University, and Zakya Kafafi of the National Science Foundation.

Currently, solar power is produced with either thick polycrystalline silicon wafers or thin-film solar cells made up of inorganic materials such as amorphous silicon or cadmium telluride. Both are expensive to manufacture, Gan said.

His research involves thin-film solar cells, too, but unlike what's on the market he is using organic materials such as polymers and small molecules that are carbon-based and less expensive.

"Compared with their inorganic counterparts, organic photovoltaics can be fabricated over large areas on rigid or flexible substrates potentially becoming as inexpensive as paint," Gan said.

The reference to paint does not include a price point but rather the idea that photovoltaic cells could one day be applied to surfaces as easily as paint is to walls, he said.

There are drawbacks to organic photovoltaic cells. They have to be thin due to their relatively poor electronic conductive properties. Because they are thin and, thus, without sufficient material to absorb light, it limits their optical absorption and leads to insufficient power conversion efficiency.

Their power conversion efficiency needs to be 10 percent or more to compete in the market, Gan said.

To achieve that benchmark, Gan and other researchers are incorporating metal nanoparticles and/or patterned plasmonic nanostructures into organic photovoltaic cells. Plasmons are electromagnetic waves and free electrons that can be used to oscillate back and forth across the interface of metals and semiconductors.

Recent material studies suggest they are succeeding, he said. Gan and the paper's co-authors argue that, because of these breakthroughs, there should be a renewed focus on how nanomaterials and plasmonic strategies can create more efficient and affordable thin-film organic solar cells.

Gan is continuing his research by collaborating with several researchers at UB including: Alexander N. Cartwright, professor of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering and UB vice president for research and economic development; Mark T. Swihart, UB professor of chemical and biological engineering and director of the university's Strategic Strength in Integrated Nanostructured Systems; and Hao Zeng, associate professor of physics.

Gan is a member of UB's electrical engineering optics and photonics research group, which includes Cartwright, professors Edward Furlani and Pao-Lo Liu, and Natalia Litchinitser, associate professor.

The group carries out research in nanphotonics, biophotonics, hybrid inorganic/organic materials and devices, nonlinear and fiber optics, metamaterials, nanoplasmonics, optofluidics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), biomedical microelectromechanical systems (BioMEMs), biosensing and quantum information processing.

TAG:Solar Energy Graphene Energy Technology Energy and the Environment Renewable Energy Geochemistry

福建东南2013春拍美石奇珍夺目生辉

郭祥忍作水洞高山石双兔钮扁章,福建东南2013春拍拍品

郭祥忍作元和洞杜陵晶石松鼠钮对章,福建东南2013春拍拍品

水洞高山桃花洞石素章,福建东南2013春拍拍品

　　本报讯进入5月之后,各大拍行纷纷迎来了春拍盛事,筹备已久的春拍成功与否,是业内最为关注的话题.作为福建拍卖行业的领头企业,福建东南拍卖将于2013年5月26日在福州香格里拉大酒店正式举槌,届时一共四个专场,分别为当代工艺精品专场、茶道具专场、寿山石雕精品专场以及寿山石雕珍品夜场,值得广大收藏爱好者密切关注.

　　审美价值回归,拍品注重文化底蕴

　　受国内艺术品市场走向转型关键期的影响,投资者对于艺术品的审美价值更加重视,具有较高内在价值的寿山石往往表现优异,受到收藏爱好者的青睐与追捧.

　　记者获悉,今春福建东南拍卖秉承其一直以来贯彻的“让收藏回归审美,让艺术回归生活”的理念,坚持为投资者深度挖掘拍品的美学价值、文化价值和长久的投资价值,尤其是其主推专场寿山石雕珍品夜场,更是汇集到了一批收藏价值极高、文化底蕴深沉的寿山石珍品,其中不乏名家的经典作品.据了解,福建东南将于5月23日至25日在福建省民间艺术馆展览厅举办拍品的公开预展,届时收藏爱好者可前往一饱眼福.

　　另据主办方介绍,日前本季拍卖已开放网上预览,收藏爱好者可登录福建东南拍卖有限公司、雅昌拍卖收藏频道或寿山石文化网提前查看藏品.

　　名家典藏雕工精绝,美石佳印溢彩流光

　　福建东南立足本土资源优势,推出寿山石雕精品专场以及寿山石雕珍品夜场、寿山石珍品夜场,历年精品迭出,受到业界的赞赏与推崇.今年寿山石雕珍品夜场更是推出了众多美石佳印,名家雕工与寿山石的钟灵造化相辅相成,以人工使佳石去芜存精,市场价值更高.如郭祥忍所创作的元和洞杜陵晶石松鼠钮对章,其所选用的都成坑石出自民国初陈元和所开发的元和洞,此洞现已废弃,传世精品寥寥无几,更使这枚松鼠钮对章显得弥足珍贵,且作者郭祥忍在传统寿山石雕刻领域造诣极高,所雕松鼠活泼灵动,使佳石良工相得益彰.

　　同时,寿山石雕精品专场也有佳作频出,如姚仲达所作高山牛角冻石双螭钮日字章,颜色如暑天黛海、精华烂漫,加之一对母子双螭,母兽神态威猛小兽憨态可掬,充满灵性,凸显作者功力深厚,令美石更具艺术价值,投资潜力不可估量.

　　造化奇珍,天成之美

　　寿山石的重要价值之一在于其造化天成的美感,自然孕育出的精美石材可谓“乾坤有精物,至宝无文章”,福建东南在推出名家雕刻的同时也注重将寿山石的审美复归自然之道,因此此次春拍中除了雕工精绝之作,亦有一批精美的寿山石素章上拍,非常值得期待.其中桃花冻珍品更是不胜枚举,如寿山石雕精品专场中推出的高山桃花洞石素对章,如同一石所出的一对姊妹,色泽微透明带浅黄,章体上方落英缤纷,深浅流漫,娇艳动人,更为可贵的是这两枚素章同样大小,形制规整修长,更吸引了众多收藏爱好者的目光,成为寿山石雕精品专场中的焦点之一.除此之外,还有水洞高山桃花冻石素章、三彩水洞高山石素方章等精美素章等待广大收藏爱好者细细品鉴.(来源:海峡都市报)

来源:新浪收藏

TAG:福建东南2013春拍美石奇珍夺目生辉翡翠翡翠手镯中国翡翠网翡翠新闻

乾隆嘉庆父子两方玉玺总价过亿成交

清嘉庆“嘉庆御笔之宝”交龙钮碧玉宝玺

清乾隆御制白玉交龙钮“自强不息”宝玺

清乾隆青花粉彩缠枝花卉开光梅菊图御制诗文柿蒂耳瓶

中国嘉德2013春拍现场图

　　中国嘉德2013春拍5月12日进入第三天,晚8点开拍的“御制—宫廷重要瓷器工艺品”备受关注,众多藏家到场竞拍,最终该场成交1.62亿元.其中,两方御制宝玺受到追捧,“清乾隆御制白玉交龙钮‘自强不息’宝玺”经过十余轮激烈竞争以6670万元摘得桂冠；“‘嘉庆御笔之宝’交龙钮碧玉宝玺”则以3450万元位列第二.

　　“清乾隆御制白玉交龙钮‘自强不息’宝玺”,制于乾隆五十四年十月至十二月,专为次年乾隆帝八十万寿所特制,据《内务府造办处活计档》载,此方玺乃八套组宝之一,是主宝"八征耄念之宝"之副宝、乾隆御笔的压角章.《乾隆宝薮》对其有明确著录,对比可知,该玺无论印材的质地、大小,还是印文的篆法、布局都与书中的著录相吻合.玺玉质凝润莹白,纯腻细致.交龙钮精雕细琢,非超凡之工不能成.龙首刻画细致,圆眼长须,龙嘴齐平,阴刻鳞纹,神态威猛张扬,给人以威严大气、稳重肃穆之感.其构思之巧、雕琢之妙,可谓匠心独运.印面方形,雕琢抛光一丝不苟,平面打磨平滑如镜,阴刻篆书"自强不息"四字,布局工整,严谨规范,法度自然.流传纪录显示,此玺曾为法国著名收藏家爱米尔•吉美(Emile Guimet,1836-1918)宝藏.爱米尔•吉美是法国里昂工业家、收藏家,吉美亚洲博物馆的创始人.他在20世纪初于巴黎著名古董商Galerie Langweil处购得此玺,并将之作为其在博物馆外的个人收藏.当拍卖师报出3200万起拍价后,即有数位藏家响应,价格在短时间内迅速攀升,最终以6670万元被一位电话委托藏家收入囊中.

　　另一方 “‘嘉庆御笔之宝’交龙钮碧玉宝玺”体量硕大,气势恢宏.作为嘉庆钤印其御笔墨宝之御书用玺,在《嘉庆宝薮》中亦有明确记载.采和田青玉,不惜耗材精雕细琢而成,玉质致密温润,入手细腻,温润通透,交龙钮神龙挺胸,龙首微昂,凛然神威.印面呈方形,篆书“嘉庆御笔之宝”六字阳文,刻工精湛,布白严整,字型略长,大气煌煌.钮系黄色丝绶保存完好,绶穗头部的纹饰及固定打结的方法也与清代大型皇帝宝玺的做法一致,充分展现了皇室制器难以企及之恢弘精湛.最终,该宝玺以3450万高价易主.

　　此外,同场中,“清乾隆青花粉彩缠枝花卉开光梅菊图御制诗文柿蒂耳瓶”,起拍价仅为450万,随后数位场内和电话委托藏家不断加价,当加价至730万时,有藏家直接报出1000万,随后价格还是持续攀升,最终,经过数十轮的激烈竞价,以2702.5万高价成交.该作采乾隆朝新创高档御瓷造型,书高宗皇帝亲作御题诗,运用极为少见的青花粉彩技法,并装饰独一无二的柿蒂形双耳,工艺水平登峰造极,意义、档次更是非比寻常,无疑为常伴君王并深受垂爱的心头之物.瓶腹所饰咏梅、咏菊御题诗及梅菊图,另见于故宫珍藏嘉庆帝为太上皇乾隆特意烧制的贺寿之器中,足证此作在乾嘉时期的重要地位.

　　据悉,中国嘉德2013春拍将持续拍卖至5月14日,地点均为北京国际饭店会议中心.邮品钱币部分将于5月14日至16日预展,17日至18日拍卖,地点均为北京国际饭店.

来源:新浪收藏

TAG:乾隆嘉庆父子两方玉玺总价过亿成交翡翠翡翠手镯中国翡翠网翡翠新闻

High-performance set-top box SoC supports high-end Android-based IPTV

STMicroelectronics says that the company’s Orly system-on-chip (SoC) is now powering a new generation of advanced set-top boxes introduced by NTT Plala Inc., a leading Internet / IPTV service provider in Japan.

The STB has been developed by Sumitomo Electric Networks, Inc., a major Japanese equipment producer for home entertainment and broadband service providers, with operations around the world.

ST’s Orly was selected as the high-end SoC best fit for Sumitomo’s global set-top box middleware platform based on Linux, Android Ice Cream Sandwich and HTML5. In particular, the Orly’s dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor allows the set-top boxes to run the Android operating system and so connect easily to new marketplaces including mobile ecosystems. The integrated ARM Mali 3D graphics processor has allowed Sumitomo to create a rich user interface for Android-based services.

By integrating a dedicated real-time multimedia processor, multi-standard video decoding engines, and high-performance video encoding with support for HD and 3DTV standards, ST’s Orly provides the ideal platform enabling operators to deliver high-quality, innovative broadcast and Internet-based services. Its high processing capabilities enable fast transcoding for true multi-screen experiences on PCs, televisions, tablets and mobile devices throughout the home.

Other important features include a high-performance security engine supporting the latest conditional access specifications and Digital Rights Management (DRM) for IPTV, OTT (Over-The-Top) and multi-screen, multi-room services with DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), ST’s proven Faroudja video-enhancement technology, media and data-driven applications, and support for Internet video standards.

ST’s Software Development Kit (SDK), created specifically for the SoC, supported Sumitomo’s efforts to simplify and accelerate the development of smart IPTV set-top boxes. The SDK provides components and tools needed to run Android on the set-top box and integrate proprietary IPTV middleware, while also supporting rich user-interface development leveraging native Android tools.

“By offering new smart IPTV STBs, we enhance user interface operability and deliver triple-tuner functionality,” said Katsumi Nagata, Board Director, Executive Director, Technology and Engineering Division, NTT Plala Inc. “By supporting Japan’s first cloud game called ‘Hikari TV Game’ and various applications called ‘Hikari TV Apps’, we are offering more convenient smart TV services that perfectly fit the lifestyle of our customers.”

Hiroaki Nishimoto, Director & Co-CTO, Sumitomo Electric Networks, Inc., said: “The new generation of our StreamCruiser SmartTV common STB platform middleware allows our customers to choose the SoC that is best suited for the strategic positioning and expected use-case of the STB, since our solution is independent of the architecture of the SoC while providing the APIs to allow Android, native Linux and HTML5 applications the secure access to the hardware engines and optimized usage of the multi-core.”

Visit STMicroelectronics at www.st.com

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

TAG:set top box SoC Internet IPTV

Bluetooth low energy temperature sensor platform offers low cost smart monitoring using a smartphone

Hong Kong-based National Electronics & Watch Co. Ltd has announced a Bluetooth low energy temperature sensor platform could reduce the cost of installing smart ambient temperature monitoring networks into homes and commercial buildings by using the simplicity of a smartphone.

Called the 'BlutolTemp Thermometer', the product will allow anyone that owns a smartphone with the latest version 4.0 of Bluetooth (that includes Bluetooth low energy/Bluetooth Smart as a hallmark feature) to set-up and use a wireless smart temperature monitoring network of up to 10 continuously monitored sensors within minutes that can continuously collect, store, and display temperature data on a smartphone app.

Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF8001 offers class-leading ULP performance and size to enable each NEWCO Bluetooth low energy temperature sensor to run for over one year from a regular CR2032 coin cell under typical usage conditions (10s updates) while featuring a slim (0.8cm-thick) and compact (3.5 x 2.4 cm) plastic sensor housing that is water resistant to 10 m (1 atm) and weighs less than 1/3-oz (9g).

"One of the most challenging parts of developing this solution was achieving the 10 m water resistance in such a small form factor," comments Alfred Ma, Chief Engineer at NEWCO who helped develop the BlutolTemp Thermometer. "We had to draw on our company's heritage in watch making since 1975 and focus on getting all the parts to fit together with high precision in order to maintain a hermetic seal - including a battery compartment that can be easily opened by the end user."

"Until now consumers and commercial organizations wishing to employ a smart temperature monitoring solution to, for example, minimize energy and heating consumption, would have had to look at some kind of costly ZigBee based platform that would have required professional installation," adds Jackson Chan, Assistant Sales General Manager at NEWCO. "In contrast, our solution is 'Plug&Play', likely to retail for as little as $20-30 per sensor, and can be installed quickly and easily by the end users themselves without specialist training or equipment beyond having a Bluetooth v4.0 compatible smartphone."

NEWCO is actively looking for partners interested in developing branded product solutions based on its BlutolTemp Thermometer platform.

Visit Nordic Semiconductor at www.nordicsemi.com

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

TAG:Bluetooth low energy temperature sensor platform smart home smartphone

Spurred by Google Glass, IHS Forecasts nearly 10 Million smart glasses to ship from 2012 to 2016

Initiated by the arrival of Google Glass and magnified by Google's efforts to promote application development for the product, the global market for smart glasses could amount to almost 10 million units from 2012 through 2016, according to IMS Research.

Shipments of smart glasses may rise to as high 6.6 million units in 2016, up from just 50,000 in 2012, for a total of 9.4 million units for the five-year period, according to an upside forecast from the market research firm. Growth this year will climb 150 percent to 124,000 shipments, mostly driven by sales to developers, as presented in the high-end outlook in the attached figure. Expansion will really begin to accelerate in 2014 with the initial public availability of Google Glass, as shipment growth powers up to 250 percent, based on the optimistic forecast.

Smart glass products like Google Glass are wearable computers with a head-mounted display. Google Glass this month began shipping to application developers who registered as early backers and paid the $1,500 price tag. This is expected to spur innovations in applications that should take Glass from early adopters to the mass market. As the developers get to work and Google encourages venture capitalists to back them, shipments will begin to surge to high volumes, according to the upside forecast.

However, the success of Google Glass will depend primarily on the applications developed for it. If developers fail to produce compelling software and uses for the devices, shipments could be significantly lower during the next several years.

“The applications are far more critical than the hardware when it comes to the success of Google Glass,” said Theo Ahadome, senior analyst at IHS. “In fact, the hardware is much less relevant to the growth of Google Glass than for any other personal communications device in recent history. This is because the utility of Google Glass is not readily apparent, so everything will depend on the appeal of the apps. This is why the smart glass market makes sense for a software-oriented organization like Google, despite the company’s limited previous success in developing hardware. Google is betting the house that developers will produce some compelling applications for Glass.”

The glass is half full
According to the optimistic scenario, developers will succeed in producing augmented reality applications for smart glasses that provide the user with information that can be safely and conveniently be integrated into casual use. Such applications typically are known as augmented reality, which involves adding a layer of computer-generated data to real-world people, places and things.

“The true success of Glass will be when it can provide some information to users not apparent when viewing people, places or things,” Ahadome said. “This information may include live updates for travel, location reviews and recommendations, nutritional information and matching personal preferences, and previous encounters to aid decision making. The upside for smart glasses will arise when they become a powerful information platform. In many ways, this is exactly what Google already does via other mediums, and also is why the upside scenario seems more likely.”

Broken glass
Under a more pessimistic scenario, IHS forecasts that only about 1 million smart glasses will be shipped through 2016. According to this outlook, applications for smart glasses will be limited to some of those already displayed by Google in its Glass marketing. These include scenarios where smart glasses become more of a wearable camera device than a true augmented reality system. In this case, smart glasses will be mainly used for recording sports and other non-casual events, like jumping out of a plane, as demonstrated at the Google I/O developer conference in 2012.

However, Glass will face competition from alternative wearable camera devices already in the market, such as GoPro Hero or Recon MOD Live. While the wearable camera market was worth more than $200 million in 2012, it is not the multibillion-dollar market that smart glasses can achieve with wider applicability.

“The less frequently consumers interact with any personal communications device, the less valuable it becomes,” Ahadome observed. “If smart glasses become devices that are used only occasionally, rather than all the time, they become less attractive and desirable to consumers.”

Visit IHS at www.ihs.com

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

TAG:Google Glass smart glasses forecast IMS research

Group backs publish/subscribe open protocol for M2M messaging

Organizations from around the world are collaborating on a lightweight reliable messaging transport protocol for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connections and Internet of Things (IoT).

The new Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) Technical Committee will develop a standardized version of the MQTT protocol based on technology from Eurotech in Italy. The group includes Cisco, Eclipse Foundation, Eurotech, IBM, Kaazing, M2Mi, Red Hat and Software AG as part of the OASIS open standard consortium.

MQTT is a publish/subscribe messaging transport protocol optimized to connect physical world devices and events with enterprise servers and other consumers. It is designed to overcome the challenges of connecting the rapidly expanding physical world of sensors, actuators, phones, and tablets with established software processing technologies.

“MQTT is well suited to underpin the world of M2M/IoT and mobile applications where resources such as bandwidth and battery power are at a premium. It is an extremely lightweight, simple yet reliable protocol, designed for use where small code footprints are often advantageous,” said Richard Coppen of IBM, who co-chairs the new OASIS MQTT Technical Committee, along with Raphael Cohn.“At OASIS, we’ll be addressing IoT data flow challenges and other issues that have been identified by the community,” said Cohn. “We’ll broaden the range of enterprise solutions by enabling integration with business applications and expanding connectivity to different types of networks and remote devices.”

MQTT is already implemented across a variety of industries and applications. For example, MQTT has been used in sensors communicating to a broker via satellite links, over occasional dial-up connections with healthcare providers (medical devices), and in a range of home automation and small device scenarios. MQTT is well suited for mobile applications because of its small size, minimized data packets, and efficient distribution of information to one or many receivers says the group.

“The M2M industry will need to adopt technology based on open standards and open source implementation to ensure widespread adoption. MQTT is well on its way to being a key standard for M2M applications. We are happy to be involved in the OASIS MQTT standardization process and host the MQTT reference implementation in the Eclipse Paho project,” said Mike Milinkovich. Executive Director of Eclipse Foundation.

The MQTT specification has been contributed to the OASIS MQTT Technical Committee by IBM and Eurotech, authors of the original version of the protocol. “We are excited to encourage further adoption of the MQTT protocol, which has the potential to simplify Internet of Things applications and services," said Giampietro Tecchiolli, CTO and Executive VP at the Eurotech Group. "Connecting distributed devices using this efficient and elegant protocol offers companies flexibility to integrate disparate data sources like intelligent devices and sensors into enterprise IT landscapes, to deliver truly useful and actionable information that drives business decisions.”

“We applaud IBM and Eurotech for bringing MQTT into the OASIS open standards process. Companies feel more confident about implementing the protocol when they can actively participate in its future,” said Laurent Liscia, CEO of OASIS. “We’re very pleased that the MQTT Technical Committee will operate the OASIS Non-Assertion Intellectual Property Rights mode, which will provide added reassurance for developers and promote widespread adoption.”

New members are encouraged to join the OASIS MQTT Technical Committee at any time. Archives of the work are accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS invites public review and comment on the work.

www.oasis-open.org/committees/mqtt

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

TAG:M2M messaging Message Queuing Telemetry Transport MQTT publish subscribe open protocol IoT

LED luminaires transmit data at high bandwidth

The Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin has further developed its broadband optical communications technology which utilizes standard commercial LEDs used for lighting purposes to transmit data. While hitherto data rates of up to 800 Mbit/s have been possible, the researchers succeeded in increasing this bandwidth to 3 Gbit/s.

According to HHI, the Berlin researchers developed new building blocks which under laboratory conditions achieve data rates of up to 1 Gbit/s. Since however in commercial LED products, three light colors are generated which can be utilized separately for the data transmission, the effective data rate sums up to 3 Gbit/s.

The institute did not elaborate on the properties of the new components. It however said that the modular building blocks are suitable for integration into existing wireless data communications applications; as an example the institute named car-to-x systems.

In general, environments where conventional electromagnetic wireless technologies could be unfit for safety reasons, could benefit from the technology. Examples could be hospital operating theatres, exhibition halls, manufacturing halls and the like.

See also /en/heinrich-hertz-institute-shows-broadband-communication-from-the-led-ceiling-light.html?cmpid=7&newsid=222907442

This article originally appeared on EE Times Europe.

TAG:broadband optical communications LED luminaires transmit data