Combo children vaccine may result in febrile seizures

Researchers have found that combo pertussis vaccine (combined diphtheria-tetanus toxoids-acellular pertussis–inactivated poliovirus– Haemophilus influenzae type b (DTaP-IPV-Hib) vaccine) usually results in febrile seizures in babies. These seizures are not long lasting.

Researchers have worked on almost 400,000 children in Denmark and concluded,

DTaP-IPV-Hib vaccination was associated with an increased risk of febrile seizures on the day of the first 2 vaccinations given at 3 and 5 months, although the absolute risk was small. Vaccination with DTaP-IPV-Hib was not associated with an increased risk of epilepsy.

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Tellurium is a rare Earth element also present in distant stars

Article first published as Tellurium, Rare Earth Element, Observed in Three Ancient Stars on Technorati.

Researchers, including researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have found that “tellurium” – a brittle and semiconducting, very rare element on Earth – is present in three stars that are present few thousand years away from Earth and are almost 12 billion years old.

Researchers have used the spectrograph from the Hubble Space Telescope, which enabled the light to be split into spectrum of wavelength. The dips in spectrographic data told about the presence of atoms of the rare Earth element as the atoms absorbed certain wavelengths of starlight and gave rise to dips.

This research has also supported the theory that heavier elements in periodic table originated as a result of nuclear fusion from a rare type of supernova.

"We want to understand the evolution of tellurium — and by extension any other element — from the Big Bang to today," says Anna Frebel, an assistant professor of astrophysics at MIT and a co-author on the paper. "Here on Earth, everything's made from carbon and various other elements, and we want to understand how tellurium on Earth came about."

Researchers have also observed that the ratio of barium and strontium is same in all three stars.

"If you look at the periodic table, tellurium is right in the middle of these elements that are hard for us to measure," Jennifer Johnson, an associate professor of astronomy at Ohio State University said. "If we need to understand how [the r-process] works in the universe, we really have to measure this part of the periodic table. It's really cool that they got this element in this sea of unknown-ness."

This research has been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Source:

MIT

Pancreatic cancer drug by Threshold Pharma has gotten better results

Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s experimental drug has achieved good results in phase 2b clinical trials. The drug is referred to as TH-302.

"We are again very encouraged that TH-302 is conferring benefit to patients with aggressive and difficult to treat cancers," Chief Executive Barry Selick said.

The company is working with German based pharmaceutical company i.e. Merck KGaA in developing the drug.

TH-302 is used to target hypoxic conditions of the cells which are usually common in solid tumors.

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Forest hidden by ashes in China

Researchers from University of Pennsylvania have uncovered a 298 million old forest at a site near Wuda, China.

"It's marvelously preserved," says University of Pennsylvania paleobotanist Hermann Pfefferkorn.

"We can stand there and find a branch with the leaves attached, and then we find the next branch and the next branch and the next branch. And then we find the stump from the same tree. That's really exciting."

Researchers have found the six different groups of trees in an area of 1000 square meters of ash layer. They have also found the specimens of “Noeggerathiales” i.e. spore bearing trees relating to ferns. 

"This is the first such forest reconstruction in Asia for any time interval, it's the first of a peat forest for this time interval and it's the first with Noeggerathiales as a dominant group," says Pfefferkorn. "It's a time capsule."

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Cloud computing by Microsoft has taken another step

Article first published as SkyDrive App's Integration in Windows 8 on Technorati.

Microsoft is going to integrate a desktop app version of SkyDrive, its cloud storing service, for Internet Explorer in Windows 8, as announced by Microsoft’s official Building Windows 8 blog.

SkyDrive service is storing about 10 petabytes of data and is in use by 17 million people at this time.

Mike Torres and Omar Shahine, group program managers for SkyDrive, have written in a company blog post that Microsoft is going to change SkyDrive "from a website today into a true device cloud for Windows customers."

"With Windows 8, we wanted to make sure that your files would be instantly available and up-to-date as you move between PCs — without configuring add-ons or using a USB drive," they further wrote.

This SkyDrive app is included in the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 and is available to use from any Metro-Style app. Consumer Preview of Windows 8 is going to be launched on February 29.

"This will bring a file cloud to every Metro style app, allowing you to open files in your SkyDrive and save them right back to your SkyDrive just like you would on your local hard drive," the blog post says.

Microsoft is also featuring "drag-and-drop upload and download support for SkyDrive, anywhere access to your data, offline access, and the power of Windows Explorer to manage your files and folders."

The blog post has also announced to fetch files through SkyDrive.com. Through the fetch files feature, users will access the files of their own desktop, from any computer, if the SkyDrive feature is on.

Omar Shahine and Mike Torres has described this as,

When designing the new SkyDrive, we knew not everyone would want to put 100% of their files in the cloud just yet. People are selective, and while some will move all of their files into SkyDrive, others will want to start slowly and use SkyDrive just for roaming some important documents and pictures from their Windows Phone camera roll. Knowing that most people would still have files on a remote PC that weren't available through SkyDrive, we built a new feature that allows you to "reach across" the Internet to access any file, stream videos, or view photo albums from a remote PC that is running SkyDrive on the desktop. For any remote folder or file, you can also choose to "copy to SkyDrive," so that you'll always have it across your devices.

Samsung's Board has approved the separation of LCD business

Article first published as Samsung Board has approved the Spin-off of LCD businesses and operations on Technorati.

Samsung Electronics’ Board of Directors has approved the separation of LCD businesses and operations. The separated corporation will be launched by the company as Samsung Display Company Ltd. on 1 April. This new corporation will be started with a capital of 750 billion won ($668 million).

Although, the company has come closer to the separation of the company as a new entity after board’s approval but it still needs the approval of shareholders.

The company has taken this decision as the demand of LCD products is decreasing in this era of fast technological progresses and the company wants to keep in pace with new advancements. Moreover, the supply of LCD products has also been increased by manufacturers.

Samsung is the largest TV and flat screen manufacturer and the deceleration of the sale of LCD products could affect the company most. So, the company has planned to focus on the new technologies such as Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) to maintain competitiveness.

"The spin-off will allow us to make quicker business decisions and respond to our clients' needs more swiftly," said Donggun Park, executive vice president and head of Samsung's LCD business.

"Through enhancements in business competitiveness, we will continue to provide superior products and services for the market," he added.

Time will tell that this strategy of Samsung for increasing competency and operations will work or not.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Single atom transistor

Article first published as Transistor Made of Single Atom on Technorati.

Scientists from the University of New South Wales have developed the world’s smallest transistor that is made up of a single atom.

The team of researchers precisely placed the phosphorus-31 isotope on the Silicon base in an ultra-high vacuum chamber with the help of a Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) and developed a single atom transistor, which could be a better foundation for scalable quantum computing. Scientists have precisely positioned the atom, so that it must be at an effective place with reduced error margin.

“Our group has proved that it is really possible to position one phosphorus atom in a silicon environment - exactly as we need it - with near-atomic precision, and at the same time register gates,” lead author Dr. Martin Fuechsle from UNSW said.

Phosphorus-31 has been selected by the researchers as it has two possible nuclear spins and it could be an ideal isotope for solid-state quantum computing. Moreover, phosphorus and silicon would be compatible with the CMOS sensors used in processors these days.

“But this device is perfect”, says Professor Michelle Simmons, group leader and director of the ARC Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at UNSW. “This is the first time anyone has shown control of a single atom in a substrate with this level of precise accuracy.”

Single atom transistor would come in the processors in the near future as it is still a very expensive technology.

This research has been published online in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.