Larger-scale cultivators now use drying machines that dry the beans in about per day. Brazil produces almost one third of all coffee, as well as Columbia where roasts would be the most well known type of pinto beans. And the environmental problems should are already handled over the growers finding out how to farm with organic methods.
You could possibly be able to have online services for coffee delivery. An espresso coffee machine, can be a perfect illustration of said multi function machines. Over time some of those with MCI will progress to dementia (DEM), a syndrome that encompasses symptoms of a number of diseases like Alzheimer's.
You can get a month's supply from vitamin stores approximately $20-$25 dollars. Once you receive the perfect roaster, you will need your unroasted coffee beans. If you're feeling you are saddled with your goal of becoming healthier, you may want to give a little more to your family routine.
In that study, the volatile extract of Hawaiian green coffee beans exhibited strong antioxidant activity by 50 % testing systems. "Our own studies published by other scientists advise that such a treatment may, indeed, exist. If you are really looking to save on coffee, your best option is usually to buy green pinto beans wholesale.
And does the extract contain caffeine? Most roasters use ovens that are powered by gas. Yet it's during each of the steps afterwards of hulling, coffee roasting so on the problems appear.
Scoop them out with a spoon, and hang up them on wax paper. Shed off those extra calories and eliminate the fat accumulated inside one's body. Again drink coffee sparingly, pay attention in your own body.
Although, you can find thousands that like to drink coffee for the go, it's not necessary to as long as you will get delivery. Actually, in lots of different ways, it's indeed beneficial to have Grind and Brew coffee maker within the household. Although it sounds so innocuous, coffee roasting is fairly an involved process and produces pollutants as byproducts. Green coffee bean extract.
The benefits from the delivery could make you be on time and obtain coffee accumulated for others. The temperature inside the coffee bean starts to increase plus the bean begins to break which means it's got reached its next crack. You can dismiss all of the billboards advertising the lap band or the latest weight loss procedure.
About the Author: He is known by the name of Tory Foutz and he feels comfortable when people use the full name.
For a while he's been in Iowa and his moms and dads live nearby. Things he adores most is to gather kites and he'll be starting something else along with it. Credit authorising is his profession.Lane Nickerson is exactly what individuals call him and he feels comfy when people utilize the complete name. He is a bookkeeper but he's constantly desired his own business. Playing baseball is what he enjoys doing. Kansas is the location he adores most and he does not intend on altering it.
June 27, 2013 ? Although it may seem difficult for adults to understand what an infant is feeling, a new study from Brigham Young University finds that it's so easy a baby could do it.
Psychology professor Ross Flom's study, published in the academic journal Infancy, shows that infants can recognize each other's emotions by five months of age. This study comes on the heels of other significant research by Flom on infants' ability to understand the moods of dogs, monkeys and classical music.
"Newborns can't verbalize to their mom or dad that they are hungry or tired, so the first way they communicate is through affect or emotion," says Flom. "Thus it is not surprising that in early development, infants learn to discriminate changes in affect."
Infants can match emotion in adults at seven months and familiar adults at six months. In order to test infant's perception of their peer's emotions, Flom and his team of researchers tested a baby's ability to match emotional infant vocalizations with a paired infant facial expression.
"We found that 5 month old infants can match their peer's positive and negative vocalizations with the appropriate facial expression," says Flom. "This is the first study to show a matching ability with an infant this young. They are exposed to affect in a peer's voice and face which is likely more familiar to them because it's how they themselves convey or communicate positive and negative emotions."
In the study, infants were seated in front of two monitors. One of the monitors displayed video of a happy, smiling baby while the other monitor displayed video of a second sad, frowning baby. When audio was played of a third happy baby, the infant participating in the study looked longer to the video of the baby with positive facial expressions. The infant also was able to match negative vocalizations with video of the sad frowning baby. The audio recordings were from a third baby and not in sync with the lip movements of the babies in either video.
"These findings add to our understanding of early infant development by reiterating the fact that babies are highly sensitive to and comprehend some level of emotion," says Flom. "Babies learn more in their first 2 1/2 years of life than they do the rest of their lifespan, making it critical to examine how and what young infants learn and how this helps them learn other things."
Flom co-authored the study of 40 infants from Utah and Florida with Professor Lorraine Bahrick from Florida International University.
Flom's next step in studying infant perception is to run the experiments with a twist: test whether babies could do this at even younger ages if instead they were watching and hearing clips of themselves.
And while the talking twin babies in this popular YouTube clip are older, it's still a lot of fun to watch them babble at each other.
June 26, 2013 ? While men tend to match their partners' emotions during mutual cooperation, woman may have the opposite response, according to new research.
Cooperation is essential in any successful romantic relationship, but how men and women experience cooperation emotionally may be quite different, according to new research conducted at the University of Arizona.
Ashley Randall, a post-doctoral research associate in the John & Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences in the UA's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has been interested for some time in how romantic partners' emotions become coordinated with one another. For example, if someone comes home from work in a bad mood we know their partner's mood might plummet as well, but what are the long-term implications of this on their relationship?
Randall wondered how the act of cooperating, a beneficial relationship process, might impact emotional coordination between partners.
"Cooperation -- having the ability to work things out with your partner, while achieving mutually beneficial outcomes -- is so important in relationships, and I wondered what kind of emotional connectivity comes from cooperating with your partner?" said Randall, who is also a research associate in the UA's department of psychiatry.
What she found in her recent study -- published in SAGE's Journal of Social and Personal Relationships -- were surprising gender differences.
She and her colleagues found that during high mutual levels of cooperation with a romantic partner, men typically experience an "inphase" response to their significant other's emotions. That is, if the woman in the relationship is feeling more positive, the man will feel more positive. If she feels less positive, he will feel less positive.
On the contrary, it seems women experience more of an "antiphase" pattern during high mutual cooperation. If her partner is feeling more positive, she will tend to feel less positive, and vice versa.
Take, for example, the following familiar scenario: A woman emerges from a department store fitting room and asks her husband what he thinks of a potential new shirt. He likes it, he says, hoping his time at the mall is nearing an end. So does the woman head straight to the cash register and make the purchase? Probably not. Chances are, her husband's enthusiasm won't be enough; she'll want to try on a few more shirts first.
Social psychology literature on cooperation tells us that women generally tend to cooperate more, while men often try to avoid conflict. Thus, men might be subconsciously syncing their emotions with their partners' during cooperation in an effort to avoid conflict or reach a speedy resolution, Randall says.
If that's the case, it's possible, although Randall's study didn't test for it, that women may pick up on the fact that their partner's agreeability is not entirely authentic. If she suspects he's not really as positive as he seems, or that he has an ulterior motive, she may become less positive herself in an attempt to get at his real feelings and reach a more mutually satisfying resolution, Randall suggests.
"If you think about a couple that is trying to cooperate with one another, the man might go along and say, 'oh sure, honey, this is great, are we almost done?' whereas the women might say, 'I'm so glad that you're happy, but I just want to talk about this one other thing because I think we're really getting at a resolution,'" Randall said.
In the end, Randall's results suggest that women may tend to serve as the emotional regulators during cooperation.
Randall based her findings on an analysis of 44 heterosexual couples who were videotaped having a conversation about their shared lifestyle related to diet and health. The couples were asked to watch the video back and, using a rating dial, provide momentary feedback about how they were feeling emotionally. Researchers analyzed the videos as well as the participants' responses to them.
Co-authored by the UA's Jesi Post, Rebecca Reed and Emily Butler, the study has implications for better understanding how romantic partners' emotions are connected.
"Cooperation is something that's invaluable and instrumental in a successful relationship but men and women experience it differently," Randall said. "This research provides another avenue to understanding how partners' emotions can become linked, but future research is needed on how these emotional patterns may ultimately contribute to the longevity, or demise, of the romantic relationship."
Just as the rumors foretold, Samsung has announced Korean availability of a 55-inch curved OLED HDTV. Priced at 15 million Korean won (around $13,000) Samsung claims its "Timeless Arena" design eliminates potential for defective OLED pixels. It also reiterates the claim LG made when it launched its own curved OLED model earlier this year that keeping all parts of the screen an equal distance from the viewer makes for a better viewing experience. It also supports features found in other Samsung TVs like multi-view that lets two people watch different things at the same time thanks to 3D glasses, and the Evolution Kit CPU upgrade. There's no word on US availability or its flat OLED HDTVs, but the company also launched its new 65- and 55-inch 4K TVs at the same event.
After Great Dane success, cancer doc eyes brain tumorsPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Garth Sundem garth.sundem@ucdenver.edu University of Colorado Denver
2 University of Colorado Cancer Center publications set stage for K9 cancer vaccine test with human glioblastoma
Michael Graner, PhD, is a CU Cancer Center investigator and associate professor of neurosurgery at the CU School of Medicine. So when his 12-year-old Great Dane got sick, he knew what to do.
"We got Star from the Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue," Graner says. "She got her name because she was always smiling, like a movie star waiting for photos. She'd already been to so many shelters, we didn't want to change her name again and so we kept it."
At 12, after many years with the Graners, Star had already reached about double the average lifespan for the breed. When she collapsed during a coughing fit, Graner discovered the cause: lung cancer, specifically advanced bronchoalveolar adenocarcinoma with metastasis to the lymph nodes. The prognosis was grim, with a median survival from diagnosis of only about 6-27 days. And Star was well past the age when she could've tolerated chemotherapy or radiation.
"With that diagnosis, chemotherapy has only a 10-15 percent response rate and she was old with her prognosis and the drug side effects let's just say chemotherapy wasn't viable. We didn't want to make her any sicker," Graner says.
So he turned to his specialty, immunotherapy. The idea is to circumvent the immune system's nasty habit of recognizing cancer as its own tissue instead of seeing it as an invading disease and attacking it. By using engineered vaccines to prime the immune system to recognize tumors, cancer immunologists are using the body's own defenses to clear itself of the disease. In this case, the treatment was fairly simple and carried almost no chance of side effects that could make Star any less comfortable: a 10-gram sample of her tumor was enriched into an injectable vaccine that contained a high concentration of heat shock proteins in "chaperone-rich cell lysate" (CRCL), which tell the immune system's T-cells what to attack.
"We expected to see solid metastases within days," said Graner. "But, you know, then the months started to go by. The important thing to us was her quality of life was really good. It was really simple and it certainly didn't hurt." You can read about the treatment and results in a paper in the International Journal of Hyperthermia, on which Graner collaborated with Laura Epple, DVM, now a PhD candidate in the Graner Lab.
Finally, at 44 weeks more than ten times the best they should have hoped for! Star showed aggressive progression of the disease. At nearly a year after the diagnosis of a disease that should have killed her within a month, Graner and his family made the difficult decision to euthanize Star.
"We still have a couple of her cell lines here in the lab," Graner says. "In that way, she's kind of immortal."
Another chance for Star's immortality comes from her potential for her experience to extend the lives of human brain cancer patients. See, Graner has continued his studies with the CRCL-rich vaccines of the type that led to Star's dramatic and prolonged improvement.
"It's one thing to treat mice in these fake systems and another to treat a naturally arising tumor that had a poor prognosis," Graner says. Along with Kevin Lellehei, chair of Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Graner recently submitted a proposal to the FDA to treat human glioblastoma with CRCL vaccine. "Star's success may make it much easier for the FDA to approve similar treatment with human glioblastoma," Graner says.
In Graner's proposed trial, human brain cancer patients would continue to receive the standard of care to treat the disease and would also intersperse treatment with the experimental vaccine, whose benefit he hopes to show, but which is also unlikely to cause additional harm.
He describes a similar protocol that failed to get approval from the European Medicines Agency.
"This isn't a brand new idea," Graner says. "But until now there had been some gaps in our understanding." One of these gaps was the fact that while previous researchers had hypothesized that tumor chaperone proteins carried the peptides that, when enriched and reinjected as a vaccine, could sensitize the immune system to tumor tissues, previous studies hadn't identified these peptides.
In another recent paper, also published in the International Journal of Hyperthermia, Graner describes what he calls, "taking these proteins and beating the peptides off them to see what they are." Sure enough, many of the peptides isolated from tumor samples were derived from proteins unique to cancer this means that a CRCL vaccine was likely to result in an immune response directed specifically at tumor tissue and not at surrounding, healthy tissues.
Graner writes that, "Parental proteins [that would be targets for the immune cells] are components of major signaling networks of vital importance for cancer cell survival, proliferation, and migration."
With the immune system sensitized, the unique genetic mutations that allow cancer cells to act cancerous would also mark them for destruction. With this research gap filled and with Star demonstrating the vaccine's effect, Graner is hopeful his proposed trial will make it to human patients soon.
"She was a real sweetie," Graner says of Star. "Hopefully her contribution to the world has just begun."
###
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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.
After Great Dane success, cancer doc eyes brain tumorsPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Garth Sundem garth.sundem@ucdenver.edu University of Colorado Denver
2 University of Colorado Cancer Center publications set stage for K9 cancer vaccine test with human glioblastoma
Michael Graner, PhD, is a CU Cancer Center investigator and associate professor of neurosurgery at the CU School of Medicine. So when his 12-year-old Great Dane got sick, he knew what to do.
"We got Star from the Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue," Graner says. "She got her name because she was always smiling, like a movie star waiting for photos. She'd already been to so many shelters, we didn't want to change her name again and so we kept it."
At 12, after many years with the Graners, Star had already reached about double the average lifespan for the breed. When she collapsed during a coughing fit, Graner discovered the cause: lung cancer, specifically advanced bronchoalveolar adenocarcinoma with metastasis to the lymph nodes. The prognosis was grim, with a median survival from diagnosis of only about 6-27 days. And Star was well past the age when she could've tolerated chemotherapy or radiation.
"With that diagnosis, chemotherapy has only a 10-15 percent response rate and she was old with her prognosis and the drug side effects let's just say chemotherapy wasn't viable. We didn't want to make her any sicker," Graner says.
So he turned to his specialty, immunotherapy. The idea is to circumvent the immune system's nasty habit of recognizing cancer as its own tissue instead of seeing it as an invading disease and attacking it. By using engineered vaccines to prime the immune system to recognize tumors, cancer immunologists are using the body's own defenses to clear itself of the disease. In this case, the treatment was fairly simple and carried almost no chance of side effects that could make Star any less comfortable: a 10-gram sample of her tumor was enriched into an injectable vaccine that contained a high concentration of heat shock proteins in "chaperone-rich cell lysate" (CRCL), which tell the immune system's T-cells what to attack.
"We expected to see solid metastases within days," said Graner. "But, you know, then the months started to go by. The important thing to us was her quality of life was really good. It was really simple and it certainly didn't hurt." You can read about the treatment and results in a paper in the International Journal of Hyperthermia, on which Graner collaborated with Laura Epple, DVM, now a PhD candidate in the Graner Lab.
Finally, at 44 weeks more than ten times the best they should have hoped for! Star showed aggressive progression of the disease. At nearly a year after the diagnosis of a disease that should have killed her within a month, Graner and his family made the difficult decision to euthanize Star.
"We still have a couple of her cell lines here in the lab," Graner says. "In that way, she's kind of immortal."
Another chance for Star's immortality comes from her potential for her experience to extend the lives of human brain cancer patients. See, Graner has continued his studies with the CRCL-rich vaccines of the type that led to Star's dramatic and prolonged improvement.
"It's one thing to treat mice in these fake systems and another to treat a naturally arising tumor that had a poor prognosis," Graner says. Along with Kevin Lellehei, chair of Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Graner recently submitted a proposal to the FDA to treat human glioblastoma with CRCL vaccine. "Star's success may make it much easier for the FDA to approve similar treatment with human glioblastoma," Graner says.
In Graner's proposed trial, human brain cancer patients would continue to receive the standard of care to treat the disease and would also intersperse treatment with the experimental vaccine, whose benefit he hopes to show, but which is also unlikely to cause additional harm.
He describes a similar protocol that failed to get approval from the European Medicines Agency.
"This isn't a brand new idea," Graner says. "But until now there had been some gaps in our understanding." One of these gaps was the fact that while previous researchers had hypothesized that tumor chaperone proteins carried the peptides that, when enriched and reinjected as a vaccine, could sensitize the immune system to tumor tissues, previous studies hadn't identified these peptides.
In another recent paper, also published in the International Journal of Hyperthermia, Graner describes what he calls, "taking these proteins and beating the peptides off them to see what they are." Sure enough, many of the peptides isolated from tumor samples were derived from proteins unique to cancer this means that a CRCL vaccine was likely to result in an immune response directed specifically at tumor tissue and not at surrounding, healthy tissues.
Graner writes that, "Parental proteins [that would be targets for the immune cells] are components of major signaling networks of vital importance for cancer cell survival, proliferation, and migration."
With the immune system sensitized, the unique genetic mutations that allow cancer cells to act cancerous would also mark them for destruction. With this research gap filled and with Star demonstrating the vaccine's effect, Graner is hopeful his proposed trial will make it to human patients soon.
"She was a real sweetie," Graner says of Star. "Hopefully her contribution to the world has just begun."
###
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?
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.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The top U.S. military officer says he has recommended that his commanders explore ways to increase security assistance to Lebanon and Iraq, as the violence in Syria spills across the borders and the Iraqis face growing threats from the local al-Qaida offshoot.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the assistance is aimed at improving the two nations' military capabilities and could include sending in U.S. training teams and accelerating foreign military sales of weapons and equipment to Iraq and Lebanon.
Dempsey made the recommendation to U.S. Central Command in recent weeks, according to Air Force Col. Ed Thomas, a spokesman for the Army general. There have been no U.S. military trainers in Iraq since troops left at the end of 2011.
ISLAMABAD (AP) ? A bomb targeting a senior judge in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi wounded him and killed seven members of the security forces on Wednesday, a senior government official said. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack.
The dead included six policemen and a paramilitary Ranger, said Sharjeel Memon, the information minister for southern Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital. The explosion also wounded 15 people, including policemen and Rangers as well as the judge, he said.
The Sindh High Court judge who was targeted, Maqbool Baqir, was being treated at a private hospital, and his condition was stable, said Memon.
"We had provided maximum security to Maqbool Baqir, and he was wounded in today's bomb attack at his convoy," said Memon.
Baqir was on his way to court when the bomb exploded, said senior police official Ameer Sheik. The bomb, which was attached to a motorcycle, was so powerful that it damaged some nearby shops.
Local TV footage showed authorities transporting victims of the attack to the hospital.
Ahsanullah Ahsan, the spokesman for Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility, saying they detonated the bomb by remote control.
"We attacked the judge in Karachi as he was taking decisions against Shariah and he was harmful for mujahideen," he told The Associated Press in a telephone call from an unknown place.
Karachi is Pakistan's largest city with 18 million people and has a long history of violence, both by gangs connected to political parties and increasingly by Taliban militants who have relocated there from sanctuaries in the northwest along the Afghan border.
Earlier this week, on the other side of Pakistan, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban took responsibility for a militant attack on a climbing camp at the foot of the country's second-highest mountain in which 10 foreign tourists and a Pakistani guide were killed.
__
Associated Press Writer Ishtiaq Mahsud contributed to this report from Dera Ismail Khan.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Lebanese bank accused of being at the center of global money-laundering schemes tied to Hezbollah would pay a $102 million settlement, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.
The settlement would resolve a lawsuit filed in 2011 against Lebanese Canadian Bank, accusing it of using the U.S. banking system to launder drug trafficking profits through West Africa back into Lebanon.
Most of the private bank's assets were acquired by the Lebanese subsidiary of France's Societe Generale in 2011, after the U.S. Department of Treasury designated the Lebanese Canadian Bank as a "primary money-laundering concern."
The $102 million would come out of $150 million previously seized by the U.S. government, the Justice Department said. Societe Generale de Banque au Liban would receive the other $48 million.
Under the settlement, Lebanese Canadian Bank would pay another $12 million to Societe Generale to resolve claims for $90 million of the seized funds, the Justice Department said.
(Corrects day in first paragraph to say Tuesday instead of Wednesday)
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
MARC travel award announced for the 2013 ISMB/ECCB MeetingPublic release date: 26-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gail Pinder gpinder@faseb.org 301-634-7021 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Bethesda, MD FASEB MARC (Maximizing Access to Research Careers) Program has announced the travel award recipient for the 2013 Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB)/European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB) meeting in Berlin, Germany from July 19-23, 2013. These awards are meant to promote the entry of underrepresented minority students, postdoctorates and scientists into the mainstream of the basic science community and to encourage the participation of young scientists at the 2013 ISMB/ECCB Meeting.
Awards are given to poster/platform presenters and faculty mentors paired with the students/trainees they mentor. This year MARC conferred 1 award totaling $2,500.
The FASEB MARC Program is funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health. A primary goal of the MARC Program is to increase the number and competitiveness of underrepresented minorities engaged in biomedical and behavioral research.
The following has been selected to receive a FASEB MARC Travel Award for his poster/platform presentation:
Deborah Muganda-Rippchen, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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FASEB is composed of 26 societies with more than 100,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Our mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.
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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.
MARC travel award announced for the 2013 ISMB/ECCB MeetingPublic release date: 26-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gail Pinder gpinder@faseb.org 301-634-7021 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Bethesda, MD FASEB MARC (Maximizing Access to Research Careers) Program has announced the travel award recipient for the 2013 Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB)/European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB) meeting in Berlin, Germany from July 19-23, 2013. These awards are meant to promote the entry of underrepresented minority students, postdoctorates and scientists into the mainstream of the basic science community and to encourage the participation of young scientists at the 2013 ISMB/ECCB Meeting.
Awards are given to poster/platform presenters and faculty mentors paired with the students/trainees they mentor. This year MARC conferred 1 award totaling $2,500.
The FASEB MARC Program is funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health. A primary goal of the MARC Program is to increase the number and competitiveness of underrepresented minorities engaged in biomedical and behavioral research.
The following has been selected to receive a FASEB MARC Travel Award for his poster/platform presentation:
Deborah Muganda-Rippchen, University of Wisconsin-Madison
###
FASEB is composed of 26 societies with more than 100,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Our mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.
[ | 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.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks are ending slightly higher after a report of tepid U.S. economic growth raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue its stimulus program.
The government lowered its estimate for growth in the first three months of the year to 2.4 percent from 2.5 percent.
Stocks slid last week on concerns that the Fed might slow its bond purchases.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 21 points to 15,324 Thursday, or 0.1 percent. The Dow was up 95 points in the afternoon, then faded in the last hour.
The Standard & Poor?s 500 rose six to 1,654, or 0.4 percent. The Nasdaq rose 23 points to 3,491.
Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was average at 3.5 billion shares.
MALIBU, Calif. (AP) ? Former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen was questioned Monday about a fight that occurred over the weekend between him and an autograph seeker outside a Malibu restaurant, authorities said.
Pippen came in voluntarily to a substation after he was named as a suspect in an investigation of an assault with intent to commit great bodily injury, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said. He was there for about an hour and was released pending further investigation.
"He's being cooperative," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.
The victim was taking pictures inside Nobu restaurant late Sunday while Pippen, 47, dined with his family, said sheriff's Capt. Patrick Davoren.
When Pippen went outside to the parking lot, the man continued to take pictures and sought the Hall-of-Famer's autograph, Davoren said.
An argument ensued that led to the altercation, investigators said.
The man was taken to a hospital with a head injury and was treated and released.
Investigators were interviewing several witnesses who apparently saw what transpired.
"Right now it's under investigation," Whitmore said. "We have to interview everybody to find out what happened."
Nobu has been a Malibu mainstay for nearly 15 years and is frequented by celebrities. The restaurant recently moved to a beachfront location that offers views of the Pacific Ocean from nearly every seat.
Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, Pippen won six NBA titles with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and was on a list of the league's 50 greatest players announced in 1996.
He is a special adviser to the team's president and chief operating officer. The Bulls declined to comment Monday.
It's by no means a phone, so adjust your expectations accordingly. Samsung's Android-infused Galaxy NX camera, revealed last week at the company's London bonanza, has just reared its LTE-capable body at the FCC. Sporting model number EK-GN120, the portable mirrorless camera offers up no real surprises -- it has all the internal trimmings Samsung already officially announced, like WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and radios for WCDMA (850/1900MHz) and LTE (Band 5). Nothing in the filing pegs this as a US release, so the usual "(insert carrier)-friendly bands" won't apply here. In fact, its mix of radios clearly mark this Galaxy NX for a South Korean debut. Just when that'll be, we still don't know. It's currently slated for a vague summer release in the UK. On the plus side, this means you still have plenty of time to save up for what should be a hefty price tag.
Cola and honey: Exploring food riddles in rhythm disturbancesPublic release date: 25-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jacqueline Partarrieu press@escardio.org 33-492-947-756 European Society of Cardiology
Drinking excessive amounts of cola and eating honey made from the pollen of Rhododendrons can cause unusual syncope (fainting) and symptoms of arrhythmia
Athens, Greece, 25 June 2013. Drinking excessive amounts of cola and eating honey made from the pollen of Rhododendrons can cause unusual syncope (fainting) and symptoms of arrhythmia, report two case studies presented as abstracts at the EHRA EUROPACE 2013 meeting, in Athens 23 to 26 June.
"Both these studies underline the importance of clinicians taking detailed medical histories for patients with unexplained arrhythmias and including questions about their dietary intakes," says Professor Andreas Goette, the EHRA Scientific Programme Committee chairperson.
In the first abstract Dr. Naima Zarqane and Prof. Nadir Saoudi, from the Princess Grace Hospital Centre, Monaco, report how excessive consumption of cola drinks can result in marked potassium loss (hypokalemia), QT prolongation on ECGs and potentially life threatening arrhythmias.
In the abstract the team describe the case of a 31 year old woman admitted to hospital for traumatic syncope. Once other problems had been excluded (including a family history of sudden death, digestive symptoms, and metabolic or hormonal abnormalities), tests revealed the patient had blood potassium levels of 2.4 mmol/L, and a QTc (The QT interval on the ECG corrected for heart rate) of 610 ms. Normal blood potassium levels range between 3.5 to 5.1 mmol/L; while the normal QTc for women is less than or equal to 450 ms.
When they took a medical history the clinicians discovered that since the age of 15 years the patient had exclusively replaced water with cola beverages. When cola consumption ceased on medical advice, the patient's potassium level returned to 4.1 mmol/L at one week, and 4.2 mmol/L at one month, and her QTc duration returned to 430 ms at one week.
A literature search revealed six other case studies where excessive cola consumption could be related to adverse medical conditions including rhabdomyolysis (damaged skeletal muscle tissue), arrhythmias, and even one death related to Torsades de pointes (a form of ventricular tachycardia that can degenerate into ventricular fibrillation).
There are two potential explanations for the connection between cola consumption and low blood potassium level the authors say. Through osmotic principles the high fructose corn syrup content of cola is likely to prevent water from being absorbed by the gut and lead to people suffering from diarrhoea that is associated with heavy fluid losses that 'flush' potassium out of the body. Additionally, caffeine in the cola is also likely to have an effect on the loop of Henle in the kidneys where it reduces the amount of potassium that is reabsorbed. In the heart reduced extracellular potassium can inhibit the potassium current in ion channels and delay ventricular repolarisation that may in turn promote arrhythmias.
"One of the take home messages is that cardiologists need to be aware of the connection between cola consumption and potassium loss and should ask patients found to have QT prolongation about beverage habits," says Dr. Zarqane.
"It's also important that the people are made aware of the potential health dangers of excessive consumption of sugary drinks. There are important political messages for governments to ensure that bottled water is cheaper than sugary drinks, which is not always the case," says Prof. Saoudi.
In a further study it would be helpful to explore whether there are differences in blood levels of potassium between people who had high cola intakes, and people who did not consume the drink, he says. Excessive drinking of cola and other sugary beverages is likely to have additional adverse cardiovascular effects. "Due to the high calorie intake it's likely to result in weight gain which increases the risk of developing metabolic syndrome," said Prof. Saoudi.
'Mad Honey Poisoning'
In the second abstract Dr. Ugur Turk, from Central Hospital, Izmir, Turkey, reports on the cases of a 68 year old father and 27 year old son who were both admitted to the Izmir emergency department at the same time with symptoms of vomiting and dizziness. Surface ECGs revealed both patients to have complete atrioventricular block and atrial flutter with slow ventricular responses.
When a history was taken both father and son reported that their breakfasts over the past three mornings had included high amounts of honey from the Black sea region of Turkey. This information immediately triggered Turk and colleagues to consider that their patients could be suffering from 'mad honey poisoning'.
Mad honey poisoning occurs after people consume honey contaminated with grayanotoxin, a chemical contained in nectar from the Rhododendron species ponticum and luteum. Grayanotoxin is a neurotoxin that binds to the sodium channels in the cell membrane, maintaining them in an open state and prolonging depolarisation.
"It's like the effect of cholingeric agents, and results in stimulation of the unmyelinated afferent cardiac branches of the vagus nerve which leads to a tonic inhibition of central vasomotor centres with a reduced sympathetic output and a reduced peripheral vascular resistance,"says Dr. Turk, "This in turn triggers the cardioinhibitory Berzold-Jarisch reflex which leads to bradycardia, continued hypotension, and peripheral vasodilatation."
Mad honey poisoning generally lasts no more than 24 hours, with symptoms of the mild form including dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, excessive perspiration, hypersalivation and paraesthesia. Symptoms of the more severe form include syncope, seizures, complete atrioventricular block and even fatal tachyarrhythmias (due to oscillatory after potentials).
While no specific antidote exists for grayanotoxin poisoning mild cases can be treated with atropine and selective M2 muscarinic receptor antagonists; while for the more severe form treatment options include temporary pacemaker implantation, and vasopressor agents.
The possibility of honey poisoning, says Dr. Turk, should always be considered in previously healthy patients admitted with unexplained hypotension, bradycardia and other rhythm disturbances. The condition occurs most frequently in people who have consumed honey from the Black sea region of Turkey, a major bee keeping area that is also the native habitat of Rhododendronponticum and luteum.
"The dissemination of honey around the world means that physicians any where may be faced with honey poisoning," says Dr. Turk. Anyone buying honey from Turkey should first consume a small amount and leave it a few days before eating any more to check that they do not experience strange side effects.
The symptoms of both father and son resolved without the need for any medications and they were discharged from hospital on the fourth day. When their honey was sent away for melissopalynology, (analysis of the pollen contained in honey) the result revealed it did indeed contain pollen from the Rhododendron species.
###
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Cola and honey: Exploring food riddles in rhythm disturbancesPublic release date: 25-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jacqueline Partarrieu press@escardio.org 33-492-947-756 European Society of Cardiology
Drinking excessive amounts of cola and eating honey made from the pollen of Rhododendrons can cause unusual syncope (fainting) and symptoms of arrhythmia
Athens, Greece, 25 June 2013. Drinking excessive amounts of cola and eating honey made from the pollen of Rhododendrons can cause unusual syncope (fainting) and symptoms of arrhythmia, report two case studies presented as abstracts at the EHRA EUROPACE 2013 meeting, in Athens 23 to 26 June.
"Both these studies underline the importance of clinicians taking detailed medical histories for patients with unexplained arrhythmias and including questions about their dietary intakes," says Professor Andreas Goette, the EHRA Scientific Programme Committee chairperson.
In the first abstract Dr. Naima Zarqane and Prof. Nadir Saoudi, from the Princess Grace Hospital Centre, Monaco, report how excessive consumption of cola drinks can result in marked potassium loss (hypokalemia), QT prolongation on ECGs and potentially life threatening arrhythmias.
In the abstract the team describe the case of a 31 year old woman admitted to hospital for traumatic syncope. Once other problems had been excluded (including a family history of sudden death, digestive symptoms, and metabolic or hormonal abnormalities), tests revealed the patient had blood potassium levels of 2.4 mmol/L, and a QTc (The QT interval on the ECG corrected for heart rate) of 610 ms. Normal blood potassium levels range between 3.5 to 5.1 mmol/L; while the normal QTc for women is less than or equal to 450 ms.
When they took a medical history the clinicians discovered that since the age of 15 years the patient had exclusively replaced water with cola beverages. When cola consumption ceased on medical advice, the patient's potassium level returned to 4.1 mmol/L at one week, and 4.2 mmol/L at one month, and her QTc duration returned to 430 ms at one week.
A literature search revealed six other case studies where excessive cola consumption could be related to adverse medical conditions including rhabdomyolysis (damaged skeletal muscle tissue), arrhythmias, and even one death related to Torsades de pointes (a form of ventricular tachycardia that can degenerate into ventricular fibrillation).
There are two potential explanations for the connection between cola consumption and low blood potassium level the authors say. Through osmotic principles the high fructose corn syrup content of cola is likely to prevent water from being absorbed by the gut and lead to people suffering from diarrhoea that is associated with heavy fluid losses that 'flush' potassium out of the body. Additionally, caffeine in the cola is also likely to have an effect on the loop of Henle in the kidneys where it reduces the amount of potassium that is reabsorbed. In the heart reduced extracellular potassium can inhibit the potassium current in ion channels and delay ventricular repolarisation that may in turn promote arrhythmias.
"One of the take home messages is that cardiologists need to be aware of the connection between cola consumption and potassium loss and should ask patients found to have QT prolongation about beverage habits," says Dr. Zarqane.
"It's also important that the people are made aware of the potential health dangers of excessive consumption of sugary drinks. There are important political messages for governments to ensure that bottled water is cheaper than sugary drinks, which is not always the case," says Prof. Saoudi.
In a further study it would be helpful to explore whether there are differences in blood levels of potassium between people who had high cola intakes, and people who did not consume the drink, he says. Excessive drinking of cola and other sugary beverages is likely to have additional adverse cardiovascular effects. "Due to the high calorie intake it's likely to result in weight gain which increases the risk of developing metabolic syndrome," said Prof. Saoudi.
'Mad Honey Poisoning'
In the second abstract Dr. Ugur Turk, from Central Hospital, Izmir, Turkey, reports on the cases of a 68 year old father and 27 year old son who were both admitted to the Izmir emergency department at the same time with symptoms of vomiting and dizziness. Surface ECGs revealed both patients to have complete atrioventricular block and atrial flutter with slow ventricular responses.
When a history was taken both father and son reported that their breakfasts over the past three mornings had included high amounts of honey from the Black sea region of Turkey. This information immediately triggered Turk and colleagues to consider that their patients could be suffering from 'mad honey poisoning'.
Mad honey poisoning occurs after people consume honey contaminated with grayanotoxin, a chemical contained in nectar from the Rhododendron species ponticum and luteum. Grayanotoxin is a neurotoxin that binds to the sodium channels in the cell membrane, maintaining them in an open state and prolonging depolarisation.
"It's like the effect of cholingeric agents, and results in stimulation of the unmyelinated afferent cardiac branches of the vagus nerve which leads to a tonic inhibition of central vasomotor centres with a reduced sympathetic output and a reduced peripheral vascular resistance,"says Dr. Turk, "This in turn triggers the cardioinhibitory Berzold-Jarisch reflex which leads to bradycardia, continued hypotension, and peripheral vasodilatation."
Mad honey poisoning generally lasts no more than 24 hours, with symptoms of the mild form including dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, excessive perspiration, hypersalivation and paraesthesia. Symptoms of the more severe form include syncope, seizures, complete atrioventricular block and even fatal tachyarrhythmias (due to oscillatory after potentials).
While no specific antidote exists for grayanotoxin poisoning mild cases can be treated with atropine and selective M2 muscarinic receptor antagonists; while for the more severe form treatment options include temporary pacemaker implantation, and vasopressor agents.
The possibility of honey poisoning, says Dr. Turk, should always be considered in previously healthy patients admitted with unexplained hypotension, bradycardia and other rhythm disturbances. The condition occurs most frequently in people who have consumed honey from the Black sea region of Turkey, a major bee keeping area that is also the native habitat of Rhododendronponticum and luteum.
"The dissemination of honey around the world means that physicians any where may be faced with honey poisoning," says Dr. Turk. Anyone buying honey from Turkey should first consume a small amount and leave it a few days before eating any more to check that they do not experience strange side effects.
The symptoms of both father and son resolved without the need for any medications and they were discharged from hospital on the fourth day. When their honey was sent away for melissopalynology, (analysis of the pollen contained in honey) the result revealed it did indeed contain pollen from the Rhododendron species.
###
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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.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Suicide attackers blew up a car bomb and battled security forces outside Afghanistan's presidential palace Tuesday after infiltrating one of the most secure areas of the capital. The army said the attackers were killed but knew of no other deaths.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack that came as reporters were gathering for a news event on Afghan youth at which President Hamid Karzai was expected to talk about ongoing efforts to open peace talks with the militant group.
The palace is in a large fortified area of downtown Kabul that also includes the U.S. Embassy and the headquarters for the NATO-led coalition forces and where access is heavily restricted. It houses Karzai's residence but it was not immediately clear whether the president was in the building at the time and his spokesman did not answer his phone.
Gunfire started around 6:30 a.m. inside a heavily guarded area near the east gate leading to the palace, next to the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the former Ariana Hotel, which former U.S. intelligence officials have confirmed is used by the CIA.
A car bomb then exploded trying to enter the area. About 20 journalists took cover behind a religious shrine, pulling a schoolboy off the street who had been caught in the open on his way to school.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility, saying in a text message the militants had "brought death to the enemy" with a suicide attack. He later suggested in an emailed statement that all three buildings had been targeted, saying the attack came "near the Ariana Hotel, the important CIA base, and also the presidential palace and Ministry of Defense."
Smoke could be seen coming from the area of the hotel, but there was no immediate indication any of the buildings were hit in the attack.
Mujahid claimed the attackers had inflicted "heavy casualties," but Afghanistan's Kabul division army commander Gen. Kadam Shah Shahim said he knew of no deaths among security forces or civilians.
He said his forces killed all of the attackers, three or four men who had jumped out of a car and opened fire.
Police had no immediate comment.
Lt. Col. Frank Hoelzner, a spokesman for the NATO coalition, said he had no immediate information but that the headquarters had not been affected by the attack. The U.S. Embassy was not immediately available for comment.
The Taliban have indicated they are willing to open peace talks with the U.S. and the Afghanistan government and just last week opened an office in Qatar for possible negotiations.
But at the same time they have not renounced violence and attacks have continued across Afghanistan.
_____
Associated Press writers David Rising and Amir Shah contributed to this report
June 16, 2013 ? Male mice who were fed a high-fat diet and became obese were more likely to father offspring who also had higher levels of body fat, a new Ohio University study finds.
The effect was observed primarily in male offspring, despite their consumption of a low-fat diet, scientists reported today at the annual meeting of The Endocrine Society in San Francisco, Calif.
"We've identified a number of traits that may affect metabolism and behavior of offspring dependent on the pre-conception diet of the father," said Felicia Nowak, an associate professor of biomedical sciences in Ohio University's Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine who is lead author on the study.
The researchers point to epigenetics -- the way genes are expressed, as opposed to mutations in DNA that are "hard-wired into the genes" -- as a possible cause of these inherited traits. Because gene expression is impacted by environmental and lifestyle factors, this finding suggests that individuals with obese fathers may be able to proactively address health concerns.
The effect of parents' diet and weight on children has been well-established in humans, Nowak explained, but scientists have been studying the issue in mice to learn more about the biological mechanisms behind the phenomenon. The Ohio University team studied the impact of the high-fat diet only with male mice parents, as most of the previous research had focused on female mice parents.
To conduct the study, the researchers fed male mice a high-fat diet for 13 weeks before mating. (The female mates were fed a matched low-fat diet.) Male and female offspring were fed a standard low-fat diet and studied at 20 days, six weeks and at six and 12 months.
Compared with offspring from control mice (who were fed the low-fat diet), the male offspring of paternal mice with diet-induced obesity had higher body weight at six weeks of age. They also were more obese at the six- and 12-month study markers. In addition, the male offspring of obese fathers had different patterns of body fat composition -- a marker for health and propensity for disease -- than the control mice.
The researchers were surprised, however, to find that the offspring of the obese paternal mice also were more physically active. At six weeks, the male offspring voluntarily ran more, and their female siblings demonstrated the same behavior at six and 12 months, the scientists report. Nowak's team is studying possible causes for this behavior, which might offset the increased body fat and reduce the offspring's risk of metabolic disease such as diabetes and heart disease.
In the next phase of the research, the team will seek to identify the genes responsible for the physiological and behavioral changes. This, in turn, may inform clinicians about possible epigenetic factors in human obesity.
"Early detection and prediction of risk for obesity, diabetes and related diseases will enable individuals and health care workers to delay or prevent the related disabilities and increase life expectancy," Nowak said. The study was funded by the Ohio University Research Council and the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.
June 17, 2013 ? Young women who have cancer treatment often lose their fertility because chemotherapy and radiation can damage or kill their immature ovarian eggs, called oocytes. Now, Northwestern Medicine? scientists have found the molecular pathway that can prevent the death of immature ovarian eggs due to chemotherapy, potentially preserving fertility and endocrine function.
Scientists achieved this in female mice by adding a currently approved chemotherapy drug, imatinib mesylate, to another chemotherapy drug cisplatin.
The results will be presented Monday, June 17, at The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
"This research advances the efforts to find a medical treatment to protect the fertility and hormone health of girls and young women during cancer treatment, " said So-Youn Kim, the lead investigator and a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Teresa Woodruff, chief of fertility preservation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Adding imatinib mesylate to the drug cisplatin blocks the action of a protein that triggers a cascade of events resulting in death of the immature eggs. Kim discovered the protein that triggers the oocyte's ultimate death is Tap63.
Previous research suggested that imatinib is a fertility-protecting drug against cisplatin, but reports of the drug's effectiveness have been contradictory, Kim said. Her research confirms its effectiveness in an animal model.
She is currently testing imatinib with other chemotherapy agents to see if it also protects fertility in combination with them.
To demonstrate that imatinib protects oocytes against cisplatin, Kim and colleagues cultured ovaries (containing the immature eggs) from five-day-old mice with imatinib and cisplatin for 96 hours. The ovaries were then placed in a kidney capsule in the host mice to keep the ovaries alive. Two weeks later, the immature eggs were still alive. The imatinib did not block cisplatin-induced DNA damage, but Kim believes the eggs may recover and repair the damage over time.
"Previous reports have shown that chemotherapy and radiation-treated oocytes are able to recover from DNA damage," Kim said.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) ? Manu Ginobili had 24 points and 10 assists in a surprise start to spark the San Antonio Spurs to a 114-104 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, pushing the Spurs one victory away from their fifth championship.
Danny Green scored 24 points and broke Ray Allen's finals record for 3s in a series with 25. Tony Parker had 26 points for San Antonio.
LeBron James scored 25 points on 8-for-22 shooting for the Heat and Dwyane Wade had 25 points and 10 assists. But the Heat missed 21 of their first 29 shots to fall behind by 17 points in the second quarter of another uninspired performance.
Game 6 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night in Miami.
Whirling through the defense like the Manu of old, Ginobili shrugged off a postseason full of disappointment to deliver a performance that the Spurs have never needed more desperately. He hit 8 of 14 shots and had his highest points total since June 4, 2012.
Tim Duncan had 13 points and 11 rebounds, Green was 6 for 10 from 3-point range, and Parker gutted through 36 minutes on that tender right hamstring. Kawhi Leonard had 16 points and eight rebounds, and the San Antonio shot 60 percent to overcome 19 turnovers.
Allen scored 21 points and Chris Bosh had 16 points and six rebounds for the Heat, who were stunned by a vintage Ginobili performance early and never really recovered.
Miami missed 21 of its first 29 shots and Green hit three straight 3s in the middle of the second quarter to tie Allen's record of 22. The Spurs led 47-30 on Duncan's two free throws before the Heat finally showed some fight.
A 12-0 run got them back within striking distance at 47-42 and the Heat surged out of the halftime gates to cut San Antonio's lead to 61-59 in the first 1:17 of the third.
San Antonio pushed right back, getting a jumper from Parker, a 3-pointer from Green that broke Allen's record and a lefty layup from Ginobili to get a little breathing room.
Ginobili closed the third with a twisting, off-balance, left-handed runner and a right-handed drive to the bucket to bring cheers of "Manu! Manu!" from the delirious crowd.
Nowhere to be found in the first four games, and for most of these playoffs, Ginobili had his fingerprints all over the opening of Game 5. He hit a step-back jumper, had two pretty assists on a backdoor cut from Green and a thunderous dunk from Duncan and knocked down two free throws for an early 9-4 lead.
Ginobili's 3-pointer from the wing made it 15-10, bringing the nervous crowd to its feet. The awakening was a welcome sign for the Spurs, who desperately missed their playmaking daredevil.
The Heat reclaimed momentum in Game 4 thanks to a shuffle of the starting lineup by coach Erik Spoelstra, who moved sharp-shooter Mike Miller into the starting lineup in Udonis Haslem's place, giving Miami a smaller lineup that spaced the floor better and gave James and Wade room to operate.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich made a move to match that on Sunday night, putting the struggling Ginobili in for center Tiago Splitter. Ginobili was averaging 7.5 points in the first four games and shooting 34 percent. In the final year of his deal, the soon-to-be 36-year-old was asked about retirement on Saturday.
The crowd roared for Ginobili when he was introduced last, with one banner reading "We still Gino-believe!"
Wade had endured a similarly quiet start to these finals before erupting for 32 points and six steals in Miami's Game 4 victory that evened the series. That carried over to the opening quarter of Game 5, when Wade's assertive play helped Miami withstand Ginobili's initial haymaker.
Wade's trademark euro-step on the break and two free throws kept the game tight and James hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 17 with under 5 minutes to play in the period.
The two teams entered Game 5 riding a pendulum of momentum that was swinging wildly back and forth over the previous three games. A classic, air-tight Game 1 victory by the Spurs gave way to three blowouts ? Miami by 19 in Game 1, San Antonio by 36 in Game 3 and the Heat by 16 in Game 4.
The volatility made it difficult for either team to feel like it had a grip on expectations heading into the pivotal Game 5, but the Heat did appear to finally assert themselves with a dominant performance from their three All-Stars on Thursday night.
James, Wade and Bosh broke out of a series-long malaise to combine for 85 points, 30 rebounds and 10 steals, finally finding a way to get to the rim against the paint-clogging Spurs defense.
But for a team as talented and experienced as they are, these Heat have shown a maddening inconsistency over the last month. The team that won 27 straight during the regular season came into the game having going 11 straight games without winning two in a row.
There was so much more riding on this game for the Spurs than the Heat, who reclaimed homecourt advantage with their decisive victory in Game 4. Under the current 2-3-2 format that was adopted in 1985, no visiting team has won both Games 6 and 7 on the road in the finals.
And the Spurs played with more urgency from the start.
Now the Heat's backs are against the wall one more time. And it was Ginobili who put them there.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) ? For more than three months, the U.S. military has faced off with defiant prisoners on a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, strapping down as many as 44 each day to feed them a liquid nutrient mix through a nasal tube to prevent them from starving to death.
The standoff, which prompted President Barack Obama to renew his call to close the detention center, has grown to involve 104 of the 166 prisoners as of Saturday, and may be nearing a crisis point. Yet the experience of a former detainee demonstrates that a hunger strike at Guantanamo can be as indefinite as the open-ended detention that is at the heart of essentially every conflict at the military prison.
The men undergoing forced-feeding aren't permitted to speak to journalists, but Ahmed Zuhair knows what the experience is like. Until he was released from U.S. custody in 2009, he and another prisoner had the distinction of staging the longest hunger strikes at the prison. Zuhair kept at it for four years in a showdown that at times turned violent.
The military acknowledges a "forced cell extraction team" was repeatedly used to move him when he refused to walk on his own to where striking detainees were fed. He says his nasal passages and back are permanently damaged from the way he was strapped down and fed through a nasogastric tube.
Court papers show that Zuhair once racked up 80 disciplinary infractions in four months, refusing to be force-fed among them, and that he and fellow prisoners smeared themselves with their own feces for five days to keep guards at bay and protest rough treatment.
Zuhair, a former sheep merchant who was never charged with any crime during seven years at Guantanamo, stopped eating in June 2005, and kept up his protest until he was sent home to Saudi Arabia in 2009.
"Not once did the thought occur to me to stop my hunger strike," he says now. "Not once."
Zuhair spoke to The Associated Press in a telephone interview along with his lawyer, Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York.
The 47-year-old Zuhair lives with his wife and children in the Muslim holy city of Mecca. He said he doesn't get much news about Guantanamo in Saudi Arabia but that the world should not be surprised that prisoners are back on strike.
"The men there today are going through the same experience and they are suffering just as much, and so they probably will not stop either," he said.
Since the prison opened in 2002, seven prisoners have committed suicide. It's the policy of the U.S. Department of Defense to try to keep strikers alive. The feeding procedure is considered safe and its use has been upheld by the courts, said Navy Capt. Robert Durand, a spokesman for the detention center.
The medical personnel who conduct the feedings lubricate the feeding tubes, offer anesthetics to the prisoners and have rules for nasal rest to prevent long-lasting damage, Durand said.
"We think there are adequate safeguards in place to make it as pain-free and comfortable as possible," he said. "It's not done to inflict pain and it's not done as punishment. It's done to preserve life."
Officials refer to the process by the medical term "enteral feeding" rather than "force feeding." It involves restraining men with straps that resemble airplane seatbelts to a specially designed chair that looks like a piece of exercise equipment. Zuhair called it the "torture chair" and said he was left tied down for hours at a time, ostensibly so the liquid nutrient drink Ensure could be digested.
It is difficult to confirm the accounts of either prisoners or military officials. Journalists are not allowed to watch the feeding process or interview the men held behind the perimeter fences and coils of razor wire at this isolated U.S. military base on the southeastern edge of the Cuban coast.
Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, recently returned from a visit with clients held at Guantanamo and said several of the men had trouble concentrating, which she attributed in part to being kept isolated in solid-walled cells for most of the day.
She said one prisoner, Sabry Mohammed of Yemen, had lost more than 60 pounds (27 kilograms).
"Sabry Mohammed was a healthy young man before the strike," Kebriaei said in an email. "It was startling this time to see how much he has changed physically."
In an editorial published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, two doctors and a professor of medical ethics urged Guantanamo's prison doctors to refuse to force feed hunger strikers, saying to do so is a violation of ethical obligations. It's an argument that has been made for years by human rights groups and detainee advocates.
There are risks to prolonged enteral feeding, including the possibility of getting liquid in the lungs and or damaging the nasal passages, particularly when the person is uncooperative, said Dr. David L. Katz, an internist on the faculty of the Yale University School of Medicine. The effects of prolonged use of liquid nutrition instead of regular food are not really known, he said.
"You do a procedure when it's the best choice under the circumstances," Katz said. "In this ethical context, these are people you are forcing to receive sustenance they don't want. I don't know how you begin to measure risk-benefit trade-offs, but there are some medical risks, certainly."
The military began using the restraint chair at Guantanamo to feed prisoners in January 2006 after hunger strikers grew dangerously thin and officials feared some might die. Then, as now, prisoners said they were striking over what they considered the reckless handling of their Qurans by prison staff, conditions at the detention center and their indefinite confinement.
The number of men participating in that protest, which reached 131 at its peak, dwindled to just two ? Zuhair and Abdul Rahman Shalabi, a fellow Saudi who remains at the prison and has joined the current hunger strike.
U.S. officials have said the feeding chair was never intended to break the strike, only to keep men alive. The military insists all its procedures are humane.
But Zuhair, and others, have long maintained otherwise. "During each force-feeding, my nose bleeds," he said in a sworn statement submitted to the court by his lawyer, Kassem. "The pain from each force-feeding is so excruciating that I am unable to sleep at night because of the pain in my throat."
At one point, the government facilitated a call to the prison from Zuhair's mother, who urged him to drop the hunger strike. "My family did not know what I was going through at Guantanamo ? the humiliation, the torture, the solitary confinement," he told AP.
A court-ordered April 2009 report by Dr. Emily Keram, a forensic psychiatrist based in Santa Rosa, California, included interviews with guards who denied Zuhair's allegations that he was roughly forced into the restraint chair and left there much longer than the two-hour maximum.
Keram also found evidence that Zuhair wasn't always confrontational. Guards told her that Zuhair often served as an intermediary between troops and prisoners.
Guards told her that prisoners would sometimes sing as they were being force-fed, a favorite was hip hop artist Akon's "Locked Up."
At the time of Keram's evaluation, Zuhair, who is about 5 feet, 5 inches, weighed 115 pounds. Today, he says he weighs nearly 190 pounds (85 kilograms). Records show he dropped to 108 pounds in December 2005.
In his seven years at Guantanamo, Zuhair faced an evolving collection of allegations that he had ties to Islamic extremists, all of which he denied. He had been taken into custody by Pakistani agents in late 2001, and his lawyer says he was tortured into confessing to having met with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan even though he had never been to that country. He was turned over to U.S. officials and moved to Guantanamo in June 2002.
Kassem pursued a legal challenge and sought to prove that Zuhair was wrongly held. "We just wanted to go to trial and have the hearing so a judge could rule on whether Ahmed's detention was legal or not," the lawyer said.
Finally it looked as if they were going to get the chance when the judge set a court date for late June 2009. But just before that could happen, the U.S. put Zuhair on a plane without warning and sent him home, where he went through a rehabilitation program set up by the Saudi government. He was one of the last prisoners allowed to leave before Congress put up roadblocks to releases.
The one-time merchant said he has no work now. And his stomach and back are in constant pain from the effects of his hunger strike.
"I think about the men who are at Guantanamo and I wonder about America's humanity," he said. "I ask myself how much longer this will go on."
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Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
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