WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate confirmed Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, on Wednesday as President Barack Obama's next U.S. ambassador to Japan, the first woman to fill the post.
Kennedy was unanimously approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 30, but final approval of her nomination was held up by wrangling in Congress over how to end a funding battle that partly shut down the government and threatened to force Washington to default on its debts.
The unanimous voice vote in the Senate late on Wednesday came shortly after the Senate approved legislation ending the crisis.
Kennedy, a lawyer and president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, sailed through a friendly confirmation hearing last month. Members of the Foreign Relations Committee spoke fondly of her father and uncles, who served in the Senate.
Kennedy's appointment lends the prestige of a storied political dynasty to the U.S. relationship with Japan, a particularly close and important ally. Many past ambassadors have been well-known political figures, including former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Kennedy, 55, was an early and prominent supporter of Obama in his initial quest for the presidency in 2008.
She noted during her confirmation hearing on September 19 that her father had hoped to be the first sitting U.S. president to make a state visit to Japan.
John F. Kennedy, a World War Two veteran who had fought against Japan in the Pacific, was felled by an assassin's bullet when she was a young girl, as was her uncle Robert, a U.S. senator and former attorney general.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
Common Kanye's Right, Chicago's Ultra-Violent ... But We're Changing That
Exclusive
Kanye West wasn't exaggerating when he said people from Chicago aren't afraid to get violent -- and it's become a DEADLY problem in the Windy City ... so says Common.
The rapper-slash-"Hell On Wheels" star was out in NYC yesterday when we asked about Kanye's comments on Jimmy Kimmel -- when KW implied that he's not afraid to fight because he's from Chi-town (the actual quote was "Never think that I'm not from Chicago for one second.").
But Common tells TMZ ... Chicago's violent reputation isn't something K should be bragging about -- it's something that needs to change, stat.
"You see what's going on with the young people right now, there's a lot of death and violence going on in Chicago ... but we're gonna make change."
There's something special about that moment when you discover a new song or artists to love. Now, perhaps as a way to make more of these moments possible, Google is bringing a feature dubbed "I'm feeling lucky radio" to its Play Music website and Android app. The search giant says it "gives you music you love at the push of a button" -- essentially, it creates a radio station that chooses songs for you based on previous listening history. It's worth mentioning this instant mix tool appears to be limited to All Access subscribers at the moment. And fret not if you're not seeing the "I'm feeling lucky" option right now; it's just started rolling out and it might be a little while before it shows up on your account.
Is there anything James Franco can't do? During an Oct. 7 photo shoot at a private Beverly Hills home, the actor-writer-director-professor became a heartbreak hero.
Greta Pasqua, 15, whose dad owns the residence, "was really depressed because her boyfriend had just broken up with her," a source exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly. "James caught wind of it and gave her a pep talk."
The star, 35, even helped Pasqua exact some sweet revenge. After learning the girl's ex is Franco-obsessed, the source tells Us, he took a huggy photo with her. "He said, 'Post it on Facebook and tell him to eat his heart out!'"
The plan worked. Says the source, "Her ex is all of a sudden starting to think he made the wrong decision!"
As for Franco's love life, the This is the End star is currently on the market after splitting from girlfriend Ahna O'Reilly in 2011 after five years of dating. In October 2012, he denied rumors that he was dating Twilight actress Kristen Stewart and Spring Breakers costars Ashley Benson and Selena Gomez. In a blog post for the Huffington Post, he claimed he never asked Stewart out on a date and added, "As for Gomez and Benson, those are [Justin's] Bieber's girls and I wouldn't dare tangle with the Biebs."
Narrow-spectrum UV light may reduce surgical infections
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Elizabeth Streich eas2125@cumc.columbia.edu 212-305-3689 Columbia University Medical Center
Destroys drug-resistant bacteria but safe for human exposure
NEW YORK, NY Despite major efforts to keep operating rooms sterile, surgical wound infections remain a serious and stubborn problem, killing up to 8,200 patients a year in the U.S. A study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers suggests that narrow-spectrum ultraviolet (UV) light could dramatically reduce such infections without damaging human tissue. The study, conducted in tissue culture, was published today in the journal PLOS ONE.
Approximately 200,000 to 300,000 patients suffer surgical wound infections in the U.S. each year, accounting for $3 billion to $10 billion in health-care expenditures, the researchers report. Patients with surgical wound infections, compared with those without such infections, are 60 percent more likely to spend time in an ICU, are five times as likely to be readmitted to the hospital, have twice the mortality rate, have longer hospital stays, and have roughly double the total health-care costs.
Scientists have known for many years that UV light from a standard germicidal lamp (which emits a broad spectrum of wavelengths, from about 200 to 400 nanometers [nm]) is highly effective at killing bacteria; such lamps are routinely used to decontaminate surgical equipment.
"Unfortunately, this UV light is also harmful to human tissue and can lead to skin cancer and cataracts in the eye," said study leader David J. Brenner, PhD, the Higgins Professor of Radiation Biophysics, professor of environmental health sciences, and director of the Center for Radiological Research at CUMC. "UV light is almost never used in the operating room during surgery, as these health hazards necessitate the use of cumbersome protective equipment for both surgical staff and patients."
Dr. Brenner and his team hypothesized that a very narrow spectrum of UV lightaround 207 nmmight be capable of destroying bacteria while leaving human tissue unaffected. Because UV light at this wavelength is strongly absorbed by proteins, it is expected to be safe for two reasons: At the cellular level, it cannot reach the nucleus of human cells, and at the tissue level it cannot reach the sensitive cells in the skin epidermis and the eye lens. But because bacteria are much smaller than human cells, this UV light can reach their DNA. "What this means is, if you shone 207-nm light on human skin or eyes, you would not expect to see any biological damage," said Dr. Brenner, "but it should kill any airborne bacteria that land on a surgical wound."
To test this hypothesis, Dr. Brenner and his colleagues exposed MRSA (methicillin-resistant S. aureus) bacteria, a common cause of surgical wound infections, and human skin cells to a krypton-bromine excimer lamp (also known as a KrBr excilamp), which emits UV light only at 207 nm, as well as to a standard germicidal UV lamp.
The researchers found that 207-nm UV light was as effective at killing MRSA bacteria as a conventional UV lamp. However, the 207-nm light resulted in 1,000-fold less killing of human skin cells than did the standard UV light.
In another experiment, the researchers tested the two UV lamps on a standard tissue-culture model of human skin (which includes the major skin layers, the epidermis and dermis). Exposure to a standard UV lamp caused extensive precancerous changes in the epidermis, while exposure to the same level of 207-nm light did not.
"Our results to date suggest that 207-nm UV light may be an effective add-on to current infection-control measures, without the need for protective equipment for staff or patients," said Dr. Brenner. "We need all the tools we can get to reduce surgical wound infections, especially those involving drug-resistant strains of bacteria, which have become increasingly common."
According to Dr. Brenner, a main route to surgical infection is through the air. "Despite every possible effort to promote sterility, MRSA and other bacteria are essentially raining down on the wound during the entire surgery," he said. "If this UV lamp were continuously shone on the wound during surgery, the bacteria would be killed as they landed." The lamps, known as excimer lamps, are small, rugged, inexpensive, and long-lived, the researchers noted.
"These findings have important clinical significance for mitigating surgical infections," said K.S. Clifford Chao, MD, the Chu H. Chang Professor of Radiation Oncology and chair of radiation oncology at CUMC and professor and chair of radiation oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College. "Right now, incidental infections occur unexpectedly. But with the use of narrow-spectrum UV light, surgical care may be improved at an affordable cost."
The researchers are now conducting in vivo tests of the 207-nm lamp.
###
The paper is titled, "207-nm UV LightA Promising Tool for Safe Low-Cost Reduction of Surgical Site Infections. I: In-Vitro Studies." The other contributors are Manuela Buonanno, Gerhard Randers-Pehrson, Alan W. Bigelow, Sheetal Trivedi, Franklin D. Lowy, Henry M. Spotnitz, and Scott M. Hammer (all at CUMC).
Columbia University has filed international patent applications for a method for generating a narrow wavelength of UV radiation that can selectively affect and/or kill bacteria. The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interests.
The study was supported in part by a grant from the Columbia-Coulter Translational Research Partnership.
A video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M65kmB8Svy4#t=30
Description for video: Dr. David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center, explains the significance of a single-wavelength UV light which can kill bacteria but remain safe for humans.
Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.
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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.
Narrow-spectrum UV light may reduce surgical infections
Public release date: 16-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Elizabeth Streich eas2125@cumc.columbia.edu 212-305-3689 Columbia University Medical Center
Destroys drug-resistant bacteria but safe for human exposure
NEW YORK, NY Despite major efforts to keep operating rooms sterile, surgical wound infections remain a serious and stubborn problem, killing up to 8,200 patients a year in the U.S. A study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers suggests that narrow-spectrum ultraviolet (UV) light could dramatically reduce such infections without damaging human tissue. The study, conducted in tissue culture, was published today in the journal PLOS ONE.
Approximately 200,000 to 300,000 patients suffer surgical wound infections in the U.S. each year, accounting for $3 billion to $10 billion in health-care expenditures, the researchers report. Patients with surgical wound infections, compared with those without such infections, are 60 percent more likely to spend time in an ICU, are five times as likely to be readmitted to the hospital, have twice the mortality rate, have longer hospital stays, and have roughly double the total health-care costs.
Scientists have known for many years that UV light from a standard germicidal lamp (which emits a broad spectrum of wavelengths, from about 200 to 400 nanometers [nm]) is highly effective at killing bacteria; such lamps are routinely used to decontaminate surgical equipment.
"Unfortunately, this UV light is also harmful to human tissue and can lead to skin cancer and cataracts in the eye," said study leader David J. Brenner, PhD, the Higgins Professor of Radiation Biophysics, professor of environmental health sciences, and director of the Center for Radiological Research at CUMC. "UV light is almost never used in the operating room during surgery, as these health hazards necessitate the use of cumbersome protective equipment for both surgical staff and patients."
Dr. Brenner and his team hypothesized that a very narrow spectrum of UV lightaround 207 nmmight be capable of destroying bacteria while leaving human tissue unaffected. Because UV light at this wavelength is strongly absorbed by proteins, it is expected to be safe for two reasons: At the cellular level, it cannot reach the nucleus of human cells, and at the tissue level it cannot reach the sensitive cells in the skin epidermis and the eye lens. But because bacteria are much smaller than human cells, this UV light can reach their DNA. "What this means is, if you shone 207-nm light on human skin or eyes, you would not expect to see any biological damage," said Dr. Brenner, "but it should kill any airborne bacteria that land on a surgical wound."
To test this hypothesis, Dr. Brenner and his colleagues exposed MRSA (methicillin-resistant S. aureus) bacteria, a common cause of surgical wound infections, and human skin cells to a krypton-bromine excimer lamp (also known as a KrBr excilamp), which emits UV light only at 207 nm, as well as to a standard germicidal UV lamp.
The researchers found that 207-nm UV light was as effective at killing MRSA bacteria as a conventional UV lamp. However, the 207-nm light resulted in 1,000-fold less killing of human skin cells than did the standard UV light.
In another experiment, the researchers tested the two UV lamps on a standard tissue-culture model of human skin (which includes the major skin layers, the epidermis and dermis). Exposure to a standard UV lamp caused extensive precancerous changes in the epidermis, while exposure to the same level of 207-nm light did not.
"Our results to date suggest that 207-nm UV light may be an effective add-on to current infection-control measures, without the need for protective equipment for staff or patients," said Dr. Brenner. "We need all the tools we can get to reduce surgical wound infections, especially those involving drug-resistant strains of bacteria, which have become increasingly common."
According to Dr. Brenner, a main route to surgical infection is through the air. "Despite every possible effort to promote sterility, MRSA and other bacteria are essentially raining down on the wound during the entire surgery," he said. "If this UV lamp were continuously shone on the wound during surgery, the bacteria would be killed as they landed." The lamps, known as excimer lamps, are small, rugged, inexpensive, and long-lived, the researchers noted.
"These findings have important clinical significance for mitigating surgical infections," said K.S. Clifford Chao, MD, the Chu H. Chang Professor of Radiation Oncology and chair of radiation oncology at CUMC and professor and chair of radiation oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College. "Right now, incidental infections occur unexpectedly. But with the use of narrow-spectrum UV light, surgical care may be improved at an affordable cost."
The researchers are now conducting in vivo tests of the 207-nm lamp.
###
The paper is titled, "207-nm UV LightA Promising Tool for Safe Low-Cost Reduction of Surgical Site Infections. I: In-Vitro Studies." The other contributors are Manuela Buonanno, Gerhard Randers-Pehrson, Alan W. Bigelow, Sheetal Trivedi, Franklin D. Lowy, Henry M. Spotnitz, and Scott M. Hammer (all at CUMC).
Columbia University has filed international patent applications for a method for generating a narrow wavelength of UV radiation that can selectively affect and/or kill bacteria. The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interests.
The study was supported in part by a grant from the Columbia-Coulter Translational Research Partnership.
A video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M65kmB8Svy4#t=30
Description for video: Dr. David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center, explains the significance of a single-wavelength UV light which can kill bacteria but remain safe for humans.
Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.
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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.
Authorities in Moscow have rounded up more than 1,600 migrant workers after an ethnic riot took place over the weekend. Russian nationalists and soccer hooligans attacked a market area in a gritty industrial suburb of Moscow that's home to many migrant workers from the North Caucasus. The riot broke out after police announced that they were searching for a North Caucasian man suspected in the stabbing death of a young, ethnic Slav man. The situation highlights Russia's immigration problem — the country needs migrant labor, but fears what it perceives as foreign influence.
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