May 20, 2013 ? A team of University of Pennsylvania engineers has used a pattern of nanoantennas to develop a new way of turning infrared light into mechanical action, opening the door to more sensitive infrared cameras and more compact chemical-analysis techniques.
The research was conducted by assistant professor Ertugrul Cubukcu and postdoctoral researcher Fei Yi, along with graduate students Hai Zhu and Jason C. Reed, all of the Department of Material Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science.
It was published in the journal Nano Letters.
Detecting light in the mid-infrared range is important for applications like night-vision cameras, but it can also be used to do spectroscopy, a technique that involves scattering light over a substance to infer its chemical composition. Existing infrared detectors use cryogenically cooled semiconductors, or thermal detectors known as microbolometers, in which changes in electrical resistance can be correlated to temperatures. These techniques have their own advantages, but both need expensive, bulky equipment to be sensitive enough for spectroscopy applications.
"We set out to make an optomechanical thermal infrared detector," Cubukcu said. "Rather than changes in resistance, our detector works by connecting mechanical motion to changes in temperature."
The advantage to this approach is that it could reduce the footprint of an infrared sensing device to something that would fit on a disposable silicon chip. The researchers fabricated such a device in their study.
At the core of the device is a nanoscale structure -- about a tenth of a millimeter wide and five times as long -- made of a layer of gold bonded to a layer of silicon nitride. The researchers chose these materials because of their different thermal expansion coefficients, a parameter that determines how much a material will expand when heated. Because metals will naturally convert some energy from infrared light into heat, researchers can connect the amount the material expands to the amount of infrared light hitting it.
"A single layer would expand laterally, but our two layers are constrained because they're attached to one another," Cubukcu said. "The only way they can expand is in the third dimension. In this case, that means bending toward the gold side, since gold has the higher thermal expansion coefficient and will expand more."
To measure this movement, the researchers used a fiber interferometer. A fiber optic cable pointed upward at this system bounces light off the underside of the silicon nitride layer, enabling the researchers to determine how far the structure has bent upwards.
"We can tell how far the bottom layer has moved based on this reflected light," Cubukcu said. "We can even see displacements that are thousands of times smaller than a hydrogen atom."
Other researchers have developed optomechanical infrared sensors based on this principle, but their sensitivities have been comparatively low. The Penn team's device is an improvement in this regard due to the inclusion of "slot" nanoantennas, cavities that are etched into the gold layer at intervals that correspond to wavelengths of mid-infrared light.
"The infrared radiation is concentrated into the slots, so you don't need any additional material to make these antennas," Cubukcu said. "We take the same exact platform and, by patterning it with these nanoscale antennas, the conversion efficiency of the detector improves 10 times."
The inclusion of nanoantennas provides the device with an additional advantage: the ability to tailor which type of light it is sensitive to by etching a different pattern of slots on the surface.
"Other techniques can only work at the maximum absorption determined by the material itself," Yi said. "Our antennas can be engineered to absorb at any wavelength."
While only a proof-of-concept at this stage, future research will demonstrate the device's capabilities as a low-cost way of analyzing individual proteins and gas molecules.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Penn's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Penn's Nano/Bio Interface Center and the Penn Regional Nanotechnology Facility.
This week on TechCrunch TV's Ask A VC show, we have Mayfield Fund Managing Director Navin Chaddha in the studio. As you may remember, you can submit questions for our guests either in the comments or here and we?ll ask them during the show.
Tomorrow Tim Cook and the gang head to Washington to have a chat with a Senate committee investigating the possibility of tax avoidance (or evasion, depending on how you look at it) by Apple. Here's what's at stake.
Ahead of the testimony it will be giving before the U.S. Senate tomorrow, Apple (via The Loop) offered up a nicely detailed 17-page PDF document with all sorts of good information inside. The most interesting number is this: Apple pays $1 out of every $40 of income tax collected by the US Treasury. Isn?t it incredible to think that one company is responsible for 2.5% of all US income tax collection?
Despite Apple being the single largest US taxpayer, Senators Carl Levin and John McCain are accusing Apple of establishing ?the Holy Grail of tax avoidance?. You can read the entire argument made by the Senate subcommittee on the Financial Times website.
While this stuff is pretty dry reading for most tech people, I find it interesting because I spent over a decade as a stock analyst and I was always fascinated by how some companies managed to achieve very low tax rates ... using perfectly legal structures.
The U.S. Government?s issue with Apple stems from two arguments relating to Apple?s arrangements in Ireland, a well known low cost country. Let?s see if I can break this whole thing down into something easy to understand.
Here?s the first major item as described by Senate:
Apple?s cost sharing agreement (CSA) with its offshore affiliates in Ireland is primarily a conduit for shifting billions of dollars in income from the United States to a low tax jurisdiction. From 2009 to 2012, the CSA facilitated the shift of $74 billion in worldwide sales income away from the United States to Ireland where Apple has negotiated a tax rate of less than 2%.
Plain English? The government doesn?t like the idea that Apple?s Irish subsidiary is treated as a cost center to the US operations, resulting in less US profit and more Irish profit. Apple?s comments regarding this structure are pretty compelling. They?ve had a cost sharing arrangement in place with the Irish subsidiary since 1980. It sounds like the Irish operations are responsible for paying for part of Apple?s US-based R&D efforts, and in return it claims ownership of a certain percentage of the intellectual property that comes out of that R&D. Apple says, ?These agreements were sanctioned by the US Congress in 1986 and are expressly authorized by US Treasury regulations.?
Furthermore, Apple points out that these cost sharing arrangements benefit the US because it keeps high-cost R&D jobs in the domestic market. In Apple?s own words, ?Some commentators have urged eliminating these types of cost sharing agreements, but doing so would harm American workers and the broader US economy. If cost sharing agreements were no longer available, many US multinational companies would likely move high-paying American R&D jobs overseas.?
I don?t know how other readers will interpret these documents, but I think Apple presented a much stronger argument.
The second major item the Senate is focused on:
Offshore Entities With No Declared Tax Jurisdiction. Apple has established and directed tens of billions of dollars to at least two Irish affiliates, while claiming neither is a tax resident of any jurisdiction, including its primary offshore holding company, Apple Operations International (AOI), and its primary intellectual property rights recipient, Apple Sales International (ASI). AOI, which has no employees, has no physical presence, is managed and controlled in the United States, and received $30 billion of income between 2009 and 2012, has paid no corporate income tax to any national government for the past five years.
What?s this mean? The US government is saying that Apple funnels profits to Irish subsidiaries and then doesn?t pay any tax because the Irish subsidiary isn?t a US resident, based on US tax law, but isn?t an Irish resident either, based on Irish tax law. The suggestion the government is making here is one of, ?Well, if you?re not a resident of any particular tax jurisdiction, you must be skipping out on taxes!?
Again, Apple puts forth a very straight-forward argument in explaining its setup. Apple Operations International (AOI) is a holding company incorporated in Ireland. Being incorporated in Ireland, that corporation is not a US taxpayer. End of story. It also just so happens that because of Irish law (which probably requires a certain number of employees or physical presence) it is not an Irish taxpayer either. So AOI doesn?t pay tax. But that?s missing the point. AOI is a holding company. All it does is collect payments from other Apple subsidiaries (payments that have already been taxed) and manage the money from a central location. The money AOI collects in the form of inter-company dividends has already been taxed.
Putting this in simpler terms, let?s say you had 3 separate companies in Ireland. Each company makes a profit and pays required taxes. Wouldn?t it be simpler to dump all of that money into one holding company so you can manage the investment of this money in an efficient manner? Of course. That?s what Apple is doing. Oh, and that money is managed by US people, held in US banks.
The bottom line is the US Senate Subcommittee is bitching about Apple supposedly not paying enough taxes, despite the fact that Apple pays $1 out of every $40 of income tax collected by the US treasury, and despite the fact that the US is responsible for establishing all of the laws that Apple is now abiding by. Furthermore, the Subcommittee is putting its hands where they don?t belong. The Irish subsidiary AOI is clearly not a US resident for tax purposes, since it is incorporated in Ireland. That is where the argument should end. It is irrelevant to the US whether or not the Irish government allows Apple to consider this entity a non-resident of Ireland. Maybe Ireland encourages this practise, making it an ideal place to incorporate holding companies. But regardless, it?s none of the US Treasury?s business so long as it is not a US resident corporation. Newsflash, Senate ... you don?t get to control Irish law. You control your own law and the law is pretty clear. If AOI is incorporated in Ireland, it?s not a US taxpayer. End of story. Whatever the Iaw says about taxation in Ireland are none of your damn business.
Back in 1999 my father encouraged me to read a book called ?The Soverign Individual?. As per the Amazon description, ?In The Sovereign Individual, Davidson and Rees-Mogg explore the greatest economic and political transition in centuries -- the shift from an industrial to an information-based society. This transition, which they have termed "the fourth stage of human society," will liberate individuals as never before, irrevocably altering the power of government.?
Today the U.S. government is under pressure to collect more tax revenue. They?re fighting information-based global companies like Apple who have organized themselves, legally, in the best interests of shareholders.
This is a battle the U.S. government will lose, and they better start looking at alternative ways to solve their tax revenue problems. Picking a fight with their biggest taxpayer seems utterly stupid.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities brought criminal charges against three New York University researchers on Monday, alleging they conspired to take bribes from Chinese medical and research outfits for details about NYU research into magnetic resonance imaging technology.
A criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan charged Yudong Zhu, 44, Xing Yang, 31, and Ye Li, 31, with commercial bribery conspiracy in connection with NYU research financed by the U.S. government.
Federal prosecutors and the FBI said the three conspired to receive payments from a Chinese medical imaging company, United Imaging Healthcare, and a research institution supported by the Chinese government.
In exchange, prosecutors said, the defendants turned over confidential information about NYU research into MRI technology, which provides detailed views of the human body.
"As alleged, this is a case of inviting and paying for foxes in the henhouse," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. The alleged theft of research "is a serious crime and will not be tolerated by this office."
In addition to the bribery conspiracy count, Zhu was also charged with falsifying records in connection with a grant from the National Institutes of Health that a prosecutor said was worth $4 million.
Prosecutors said Zhu and Yang were arrested at their homes in New York on Sunday, while they said Li is believed to have flown to China on May 10 before charges were brought. Li could not immediately be located for comment.
NYU was not named in the complaint, which says the three individuals worked at a New York-based university research medical center. But a spokeswoman for the university confirmed the three defendants worked at the NYU Langone Medical Center.
"NYULMC is deeply disappointed by the news of the alleged conduct by its employees," Kathy Lewis, a university spokeswoman, said in a statement.
All three individuals have been suspended from NYU, Lewis said. The university is cooperating with the investigation, she said.
CHINESE CASES
The case comes amid heightened concern of Chinese theft of U.S. trade secrets. Prosecutors have brought several criminal cases against defendants accused of stealing trade secrets from the likes of Motorola Inc, General Motors Co and Dow Chemical Co and then providing them to Chinese companies.
Zhu, a Chinese citizen, was an associate professor in radiology at NYU; he was hired to teach about innovations in the MRI field in 2008, according to the complaint.
Richard Baum, a lawyer for Zhu, said at a hearing on Monday that by the time he joined NYU from General Electric Co, he was already "one of the world's renowned experts in MRI technology."
In 2010, Zhu applied for a grant from the National Institutes of Health. After starting research under the multimillion-dollar grant, prosecutors said Zhu recruited Yang and Li to work with him.
At that time, Zhu also arranged to receive financial benefits from an unnamed executive with United Imaging Healthcare, the complaint said.
The executive agreed to pay for Yang's graduate school tuition and Li's rent for his apartment, the complaint said. The executive also agreed to pay for their travel between China and New York, the complaint said.
Prosecutors said Yang also shared research results of his work with individuals at United Imaging.
Zhu, meanwhile, had been working with the United Imaging executive leading a similar MRI research project funded by the Chinese government, the complaint said.
Some of the defendants also had undisclosed connections to Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SAIT), a Chinese government-backed research institute also studying MRI technology, according to the complaint.
As part of an internal investigation NYU launched in connection with the case, Li allegedly told the university he had as of January 2013 been a research associate professor at SAIT.
Zhu, meanwhile, had worked with the unidentified United Imaging executive as part of the same MRI research team at the institute, the complaint said.
At a hearing to determine the defendants' bail, a U.S. prosecutor said the government had also since learned even more details about the crime not described in the complaint.
Zachary Feingold, an assistant U.S. attorney, said Zhu had told investigators that he received at least $400,000 from the Chinese company. The money was deposited in a bank account in the name of a company owned by his mother, Feingold said.
A call to United Imaging after business hours in China was not answered, nor was an email to the company. SAIT did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
PATENT AT ISSUE
Beyond the money from the Chinese company, the complaint also accused Zhu of intentionally failing to disclose an October 2008 patent application he filed for technology related to radio frequency coils used in MRI scanners.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the patent in November 2012. Prosecutors said the patent's value would be affected by the NIH grant research.
At Monday's hearing, Baum, Zhu's lawyer, disputed that NYU didn't know about the patent, which he applied for before joining the university. He already had several other patents at the time, Baum said.
"Whether it's a conflict instead of a crime is a different issue," he said.
Zhu was released on $200,000 bond to be secured by $20,000 cash. Yang was released on $100,000 bond to be secured by $5,000 cash and will be subject to home confinement.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Martha Graybow, David Gregorio and Jan Paschal)
Ellie (right) is a computer simulation designed to engage real people, like the woman on the left, in meaningful conversation and take their measure. The computer system looks for subtle patterns in body language and vocal inflections that might be clues to underlying depression or other emotional distress.
YouTube
Ellie (right) is a computer simulation designed to engage real people, like the woman on the left, in meaningful conversation and take their measure. The computer system looks for subtle patterns in body language and vocal inflections that might be clues to underlying depression or other emotional distress.
YouTube
Her hair is brown and tied back into a professional looking ponytail. She wears a blue shirt, tan sweater and delicate gold chain. It's the first time she's met the man sitting across from her, and she looks out at him, her eyes curious.
"So how are you doing today?" she asks cautiously, trying to build rapport.
"I'm doing well," he answers. His eyes blink.
"That's good," she continues. "Where are you from originally?"
"I'm from L.A.," he tells her, and this makes her smile slightly.
"Oh!" she says with surprise in her voice. "I'm from L.A. myself!"
She is from L.A. She was created in Los Angeles and "lives out her life" there on a computer screen in a lab at the University of Southern California. She's not a real woman, but a virtual one, created to talk to people who are struggling emotionally, and to take their measure in a way no human can. Her makers believe that her ability to do this will ultimately revolutionize the way that mental healthcare is practiced in this country. Her name is Ellie.
There's Power In A Well Timed 'Uh-huh'
The project that resulted in Ellie began almost two years ago at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies. Two scientists in particular are responsible for her existence, a psychologist named Albert "Skip" Rizzo and a computer scientist named Louis-Philippe Morency.
Rizzo and Morency spent months laboring over every element of Ellie's presentation and interaction with patients, experimenting with a range of different personalities, outfits, and vocal mannerisms.
"Everything has been thought of," says Morency. For example when patients talk, Ellie encourages them to continue talking with a well timed, 'Uh-huh,' just as real people do.
"We have recorded more than 200 of these uh-huhs," Morency says. "And these are so powerful! Because a simple 'uh-huh' and a silence ? if they are done the right way ? can be extremely powerful. So we spent a lot of time on these little details."
But the most important thing about Ellie is not her skill at gently probing all the people her scientist brings into the lab to talk to her. Her real value, the reason she was built at all, is her skill at taking and analyzing thousands of measurements of those people.
Under the wide screen where Ellie's image sits there are three devices. A video camera tracks facial expressions of the person sitting opposite. A movement sensor ? Microsoft Kinect ? tracks the person's gestures, fidgeting and other movements. A microphone records every inflection and tone in his or her voice. The point, Rizzo explains, is to analyze in almost microscopic detail the way that people talk and move ? to read their body language.
"We can look at the position of the head, the eye gaze," Rizzo says. Does the head tilt? Does it lean forward? Is it static and fixed?" In fact Ellie tracks and analyzes around 60 different features ? various body and facial movements, and different aspects of the voice.
The theory of all this is that a detailed analysis of those movements and vocal features can give us new insights into people who are struggling with emotional issues. The body, face and voice express things that words sometimes obscure.
"You know, people are in a constant state of impression management," Rizzo says. "They've got their true self and the self that they want to project to the world. And we know that the body displays things that sometimes people try to keep contained."
So, as Ellie gets the person in front of her to ruminate about when they were happy, and when they were sad, the machines below her screen take measurements, cataloguing how much the person smiles and for how long, how often they touch their head.
Morency says the machines record 30 measurements per second, or "about 1,800 measurements per minute." Literally every wince, pause and verbal stumble is captured and later analyzed.
Ellie was originally commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense. After all the deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military was seeing a lot of suicides and wanted to find a way to help military therapists catch the suicides before they happen. Soldiers don't always like to confess they're having problems, but maybe their bodies would say what their words wouldn't.
This is why Ellie is being programmed to produce a report after each of her sessions ? it's a kind of visual representation of the 60 different movements she tracks.
? People are in a constant state of impression management. They've got their true self and the self that they want to project to the world.
- Skip Rizzo, psychologist, University of Southern California
"For each indicator," Morency explains, "we will display three things." First, the report will show the physical behavior of the person Ellie just interviewed, tallying how many times he or she smiled, for instance, and for how long. Then the report will show how much depressed people typically smile, and finally how much healthy people typically smile. Essentially it's a visualization of the person's behavior compared to a population of depressed and non-depressed people.
If the person's physical behaviors are similar to someone who's depressed, then the person will be flagged.
The idea here is not for Ellie to actually diagnose people and replace trained therapists. She's just there to offer insight to therapists, Morency says, by providing some objective measurements.
"Think about it as a blood sample," he says. "You send a blood sample to the lab and you get the result. The [people] doing the diagnosis [are] still the clinicians, but they use these objective measures to make the diagnosis."
Real People Are Complicated
Now, obviously this work raises all kinds of issues, and even on a practical level, real obstacles remain. Jeff Cohen, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh, studies the relationship between physical movements and emotion and says signals from the face, voice and body are incredibly complicated to interpret.
"Individuals vary a lot in how expressive they are," Cohen explains. "You know, if I'm someone who is very expressive and I smile frequently, [even] when I'm depressed and smiling less, I may still smile more than you do if you're a tight lipped, not very emotive individual."
This means, Cohen says, that using Ellie in the way that blood tests are used ? as proof positive of one diagnosis or another, will be really difficult.
"It strikes me as unlikely that face or voice will provide that information with such certainty," he says.
But Skip Rizzo, the psychologist working on Ellie, genuinely believes these technologies will eventually change the field of mental health. One of the central problems with humans, he says, is that they bring their own biases to whatever they encounter, and those biases often make it hard for them to see what's directly in front of them.
"You can get training to be a health care provider or psychologist," he says, "and try to put those things on hold and be very objective. But it's still a challenge. It's always going to be biased by experience. What computers [like Ellie] offer is the ability to look at massive amounts of data and begin to look at patterns and that, I think, far outstrips the mere mortal brain."
This summer Ellie is being tested. She's scheduled to sit down with dozens of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
She'll ask them about their lives, encourage them to open up.
New study identifies risk factors for depression among COPD patientsPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nathaniel Dunford ndunford@thoracic.org American Thoracic Society
ATS 2013, PHILADELPHIA ? Patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) typically suffer from depression more frequently than those without COPD, resulting in higher levels of disability and illness and increasing the overall healthcare burden for the COPD population. Now, a study from researchers in Argentina indicates female COPD patients and patients who experience significant shortness of breath may have the greatest risk for developing depression.
The results of the study will be presented at the ATS 2013 International Conference.
"About 10 percent of the general population suffers from depression, and studies have shown that rate to be significantly higher in patients with COPD," said study lead author Orlando Lopez Jove, MD, chief of the pulmonary laboratory at the Hospital Cetrangolo in Buenos Aires. "Not every COPD patient will suffer from depression, and being able to identify which patients are most at risk could be a valuable tool in ensuring those patients receive counseling and other treatment that could help improve their quality of life.
"In this study, we wanted to learn if factors including gender, lifestyle habits, COPD severity, shortness of breath and overall quality of life were related to the frequency of depression in COPD patients, and if they were related, to try to determine the extent of that relationship," he said.
For their study, the researchers evaluated 113 COPD patients who were treated at the Hospital Cetrangolo in Buenos Aires from January 2009 to March 2011 and who had not had exacerbations of their disease within the previous 30-day period. Patients were evaluated for pulmonary function and for the degree of shortness of breath they experienced, as well as other physical characteristics including weight and body mass index (BMI). The researchers used previous diagnoses of depression and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to determine the presence and level of depression and the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) to evaluate quality of life measures for each patient, and they also looked at specific lifestyle factors and habits like smoking and evaluated family history of depression. Patients were considered to be physically active if they engaged in physical activity for at least 150 minutes each week, the amount recommended by the American Heart Association to maintain good health.
At the end of the study, the researchers discovered that while the severity of COPD and smoking had no bearing on whether or not a patient had depression or their level of depression, patients who were female and those experiencing significant shortness of breath were at a significantly greater risk for the condition. They also found that the presence of depression and its intensity had a direct bearing on a patient's quality of life, affecting both the total quality-of-life score and the score for individual factors measured by the SGRQ.
The researchers also identified physical activity as a protective factor against depression, meaning patients who had higher levels of physical activity were less prone to developing depression.
"Depression is a disorder which remains easily undiagnosed due to underpresentation and because the symptoms are not very specific," said Dr. Lopez Jove, who is also vice-director of the pathophysiology department at the Latin American Thoracic Association (ALAT). "Therefore, it is important to consider this disorder in patients with COPD, especially in female patients and patients who experience significant shortness of breath.
A future planned study will help evaluate how treatment of depression affects these patients and their quality of life, he said.
"COPD patients have to deal not only with the physical consequences of the disease, but they also must deal with the psychological consequences of COPD," Dr. Lopez Jove noted. "Patients with depression often suffer from low self-confidence or self-efficacy, and early diagnosis and treatment of depression is very important for improving a patient's quality of life, maximizing healthcare utilization and improving treatment outcomes."
###
* Please note that numbers in this release may differ slightly from those in the abstract. Many of these investigations are ongoing; the release represents the most up-to-date data available at press time.
Abstract 39776
Depression In Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): Relationship To Dyspnea Degrees And Impact On Quality Of Life (Qol)
Type: Scientific Abstract
Category: 09.03 - COPD: Comorbidities (CP)
Authors: O.R. Lopez Jove1, A. Galdames2, V. Barrionuevo2, E. Giugno3, S. Rey2, Y.F. Wu4, G. Tabaj2, E. Lopez Gonzalez5; 1Hopital Cetrangolo - Buenos Aires/AR, 2Hospital "Dr. Antonio A.Cetrngolo" - Vicente Lopez - Buenos Aires/AR, 3Hospital "Dr. Antonio A.Cetrngolo" - 1147912090/AR, 4Hopital Cetrangolo - Vicente Lopez- Buenos Aires/AR, 5Argentine Diabetes Society - Caba/AR
Abstract Body
Background: The prevalence of depression in the general population is around 10%, being higher in patients with COPD. The presence of this comorbidity increases morbidity, disability, and health care burden.
Aims: To evaluate the frequency of depression in COPD patients and its relationship with gender, habits, COPD severity, degree of dyspnea and QoL.
Material and methods: we performed an observational, prospective study at Hospital "Dr. Cetrngolo", Argentina, in patients with COPD according to GOLD criteria (stages I to IV) without exacerbations in the last month. Evaluation included the following issues: anthropometric measures, pulmonary function tests, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale (mMRC) from 0 to 4. The SGRQ measures QoL dimensions: symptoms, activity, and impact. It has total and individual scores. Depression was considered in patients who had former diagnosis or with a BDI score >9 points. Physical activity was considered if was performed for more than 150 minutes (=3 times)/week. Statistical
Analysis: Chi2 test, Student's t test, Pearson correlation, and Kruskal-Wallis test. Software: Intercooled STATA.
Results: We evaluated 113 patients, mean age 63.1 8.3 years. 33 females (28.9%). Current smokers: 18.6%. Smoking intensity: 56.129.2 packs/year. Family history of depression: 13(11.2%). GOLD stage: Stage I: 2.6%, Stage II: 47.8%, Stage III: 37.2%, Stage IV: 12.4%. BMI: mean 26.94.7 kg/m2. The mean scores in each dimension of SGRQ were: total 46.2 18.7, symptoms 50.1 20.5, activity 61.1 22.4 and impact 35.4 19.2.
Depression n=51 (45.3%): patients who had previous diagnosis 7 (13.7%); diagnosed by BDI 44 (86.3%), BDI mean 11.48.4 points.
Depression was associated with: female gender (rough OR: 4.14, p Risk factors for depression (logistic regression) were: female gender (OR=5.37; IC 1.76-16.37; pDepression impacts on Quality of Life measured by SGRQ in total and in each dimension.
Conclusions: We found depression as a common finding in this sample of COPD individuals. Female gender, and higher degree of dyspnea were predictors. Physical activity was a protective factor. Depression was associated with greater impairment in QoL. Screening for depression may be necessary in COPD patients.
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New study identifies risk factors for depression among COPD patientsPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nathaniel Dunford ndunford@thoracic.org American Thoracic Society
ATS 2013, PHILADELPHIA ? Patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) typically suffer from depression more frequently than those without COPD, resulting in higher levels of disability and illness and increasing the overall healthcare burden for the COPD population. Now, a study from researchers in Argentina indicates female COPD patients and patients who experience significant shortness of breath may have the greatest risk for developing depression.
The results of the study will be presented at the ATS 2013 International Conference.
"About 10 percent of the general population suffers from depression, and studies have shown that rate to be significantly higher in patients with COPD," said study lead author Orlando Lopez Jove, MD, chief of the pulmonary laboratory at the Hospital Cetrangolo in Buenos Aires. "Not every COPD patient will suffer from depression, and being able to identify which patients are most at risk could be a valuable tool in ensuring those patients receive counseling and other treatment that could help improve their quality of life.
"In this study, we wanted to learn if factors including gender, lifestyle habits, COPD severity, shortness of breath and overall quality of life were related to the frequency of depression in COPD patients, and if they were related, to try to determine the extent of that relationship," he said.
For their study, the researchers evaluated 113 COPD patients who were treated at the Hospital Cetrangolo in Buenos Aires from January 2009 to March 2011 and who had not had exacerbations of their disease within the previous 30-day period. Patients were evaluated for pulmonary function and for the degree of shortness of breath they experienced, as well as other physical characteristics including weight and body mass index (BMI). The researchers used previous diagnoses of depression and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to determine the presence and level of depression and the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) to evaluate quality of life measures for each patient, and they also looked at specific lifestyle factors and habits like smoking and evaluated family history of depression. Patients were considered to be physically active if they engaged in physical activity for at least 150 minutes each week, the amount recommended by the American Heart Association to maintain good health.
At the end of the study, the researchers discovered that while the severity of COPD and smoking had no bearing on whether or not a patient had depression or their level of depression, patients who were female and those experiencing significant shortness of breath were at a significantly greater risk for the condition. They also found that the presence of depression and its intensity had a direct bearing on a patient's quality of life, affecting both the total quality-of-life score and the score for individual factors measured by the SGRQ.
The researchers also identified physical activity as a protective factor against depression, meaning patients who had higher levels of physical activity were less prone to developing depression.
"Depression is a disorder which remains easily undiagnosed due to underpresentation and because the symptoms are not very specific," said Dr. Lopez Jove, who is also vice-director of the pathophysiology department at the Latin American Thoracic Association (ALAT). "Therefore, it is important to consider this disorder in patients with COPD, especially in female patients and patients who experience significant shortness of breath.
A future planned study will help evaluate how treatment of depression affects these patients and their quality of life, he said.
"COPD patients have to deal not only with the physical consequences of the disease, but they also must deal with the psychological consequences of COPD," Dr. Lopez Jove noted. "Patients with depression often suffer from low self-confidence or self-efficacy, and early diagnosis and treatment of depression is very important for improving a patient's quality of life, maximizing healthcare utilization and improving treatment outcomes."
###
* Please note that numbers in this release may differ slightly from those in the abstract. Many of these investigations are ongoing; the release represents the most up-to-date data available at press time.
Abstract 39776
Depression In Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): Relationship To Dyspnea Degrees And Impact On Quality Of Life (Qol)
Type: Scientific Abstract
Category: 09.03 - COPD: Comorbidities (CP)
Authors: O.R. Lopez Jove1, A. Galdames2, V. Barrionuevo2, E. Giugno3, S. Rey2, Y.F. Wu4, G. Tabaj2, E. Lopez Gonzalez5; 1Hopital Cetrangolo - Buenos Aires/AR, 2Hospital "Dr. Antonio A.Cetrngolo" - Vicente Lopez - Buenos Aires/AR, 3Hospital "Dr. Antonio A.Cetrngolo" - 1147912090/AR, 4Hopital Cetrangolo - Vicente Lopez- Buenos Aires/AR, 5Argentine Diabetes Society - Caba/AR
Abstract Body
Background: The prevalence of depression in the general population is around 10%, being higher in patients with COPD. The presence of this comorbidity increases morbidity, disability, and health care burden.
Aims: To evaluate the frequency of depression in COPD patients and its relationship with gender, habits, COPD severity, degree of dyspnea and QoL.
Material and methods: we performed an observational, prospective study at Hospital "Dr. Cetrngolo", Argentina, in patients with COPD according to GOLD criteria (stages I to IV) without exacerbations in the last month. Evaluation included the following issues: anthropometric measures, pulmonary function tests, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale (mMRC) from 0 to 4. The SGRQ measures QoL dimensions: symptoms, activity, and impact. It has total and individual scores. Depression was considered in patients who had former diagnosis or with a BDI score >9 points. Physical activity was considered if was performed for more than 150 minutes (=3 times)/week. Statistical
Analysis: Chi2 test, Student's t test, Pearson correlation, and Kruskal-Wallis test. Software: Intercooled STATA.
Results: We evaluated 113 patients, mean age 63.1 8.3 years. 33 females (28.9%). Current smokers: 18.6%. Smoking intensity: 56.129.2 packs/year. Family history of depression: 13(11.2%). GOLD stage: Stage I: 2.6%, Stage II: 47.8%, Stage III: 37.2%, Stage IV: 12.4%. BMI: mean 26.94.7 kg/m2. The mean scores in each dimension of SGRQ were: total 46.2 18.7, symptoms 50.1 20.5, activity 61.1 22.4 and impact 35.4 19.2.
Depression n=51 (45.3%): patients who had previous diagnosis 7 (13.7%); diagnosed by BDI 44 (86.3%), BDI mean 11.48.4 points.
Depression was associated with: female gender (rough OR: 4.14, p Risk factors for depression (logistic regression) were: female gender (OR=5.37; IC 1.76-16.37; pDepression impacts on Quality of Life measured by SGRQ in total and in each dimension.
Conclusions: We found depression as a common finding in this sample of COPD individuals. Female gender, and higher degree of dyspnea were predictors. Physical activity was a protective factor. Depression was associated with greater impairment in QoL. Screening for depression may be necessary in COPD patients.
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Gather hundreds of celebrities and film executives on the French Riviera for the Cannes Film Festival and naturally, they need their glitter and glam.
One way the famous end up looking so good and so trendy is that often, they don't have to bring, or buy, their own fabulousness: They get special invitations to luxury "gifting suites" set up in hotel rooms at the film festival and can walk out with thousands of dollars of clothes and jewelry.
These rooms of swag aren't the only places where there's bling-related excitement to be found -- someone stole jewels meant for celebrities to wear on the red carpet straight from a hotel room very early on in the festival.
The Hollywood Reporter took a look inside some of these swag rooms stocked by famous brands including Chanel, Swarovski, Dior, and Jimmy Choo to find out what's up for grabs -- if you've got the right A-list name. Check out the video!
All Critics (100) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (101) | Rotten (8) | DVD (39)
The enthralling man-vs.-nature parable based on the late Michael Crichton's best-selling novel hasn't aged one bit.
The 3-D process adds not just dimension but depth - a technological extension of cinematographer Gregg Toland's deep-focus innovations in The Grapes of Wrath and Citizen Kane. The change in perspective creates greater intensity.
I'm a fan of this movie. It is thrilling, and the 3-D treatment is a nice enhancement.
This movie doesn't just stand the test of time, it transcends it.
"Jurassic Park" remains an absolute thrill from a Spielberg in top form: Funny, scary, fast-moving and full of just-right details.
"Jurassic Park" was impressive in 1993. Twenty years later, it's flawless.
Some things have dated - Sam Jackson wouldn't be allowed to smoke in the office; everyone would have mobiles; Google Earth would have kept the island from being kept a secret - but the power of the film's pioneering CGI remain strangely undiminished.
Steven Spielberg's summer adventure is still one of the ultimate movie roller coaster rides.
Jurassic Park is a how-to guide for structuring a multi-character disaster film.
Still proves as thrilling as ever.
A classic gets even better.
Steven Spielbeg's 1993 tale of an island plagued dinosaurs running amok holds up surprisingly well in the special effects category.
The film is a classic and the chance to see it on the big screen again (or for the first time) should not be missed
Sentiment is explained by science as the family impulse that motivates so many Steven Spielberg stories is revealed to be an evolutionary imperative in this near-perfect action-adventure.
[Looks] better not only than effects-driven movies of the same period, but better, frankly, than half of what gets released nowadays.
Kids who love dinosaurs will love it. And who doesn't?
confirms both Spielberg's mastery of cinematic thrills and the comparatively empty bombast of today's summer tentpole movies, even the better ones.
Jurassic Park shows us a director in transition, and the film captures his transformation in its own kind of cinematic amber.
[The] 3D [conversion] provides the definitive version of this classic film. Jurassic Park has been transformed with with artistry, nuance and sophistication, and it's an absolute must-see during this brief run.
The 3D effects had me nearly jumping out of my seat. Some say Hollywood is converting too many old films to 3D. But, "Jurassic Park" was the perfect choice. There's nothing more fun than sharing a seat with a snapping dinosaur.
Spielberg treats us as he does his characters, leading us into a strange land and expecting us to make it out with all our faculties intact; it's a tall order, given the heart-stopping, bloodcurdling, limbs-numbing excitement packed into the second hour.
It is as if time has passed the movie by. "Jurassic Park" remains solid entertainment, but the awe and wonder have faded.
The thrill of seeing live dinosaurs on screen is not as acute today as it was 20 years ago admittedly, but there is still some 3D awe left in the creations that roared 65 billion years ago...
The 3D isn't pushed on the audience, but it does reveal the amount of depth that Spielberg actually put into the film 20 years ago.
While it's not the most profound of Spielberg's works or the most entertaining from a popcorn perspective, it's one of the most technically flawless movies he's ever produced.
Jurassic Park 3D is like being reunited with an old friend; an old friend that wants to eat you and maul you to death, but still. A classic is reborn in glorious IMAX with a vibrantly stunning use of 3D.
(Reuters) - The jackpot for the Powerball lottery has soared to a record $600 million and the top prize may swell to nearly $1 billion if no one draws the winning numbers this weekend, a lottery official said on Friday.
The potential payout of Saturday's jackpot could mean a one-time lump sum payment of $376.9 million. Officials reported brisk ticket sales across the country.
The top prize grew after no one won a drawing on Wednesday, said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, where the Powerball is based.
The popular lottery, which is played in 42 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, has not had a winner in two months.
"If this hasn't caught your attention, I'm not sure what would," Neubauer said.
The previous largest Powerball jackpot record was $587.5 million in November 2012. According to Powerball, the odds of winning the big prize on Saturday are one in 175 million.
If no match is made for all winning five numbers and the Powerball, the jackpot could grow to nearly $1 billion, Neubauer said.
She said that size of a pot could pose some challenges for lottery organizers.
"Our billboards aren't designed to display a billion," she said. "We're not sure how we will display that amount, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
(Additional reporting by David Adams; Writing by Kevin Gray; Editing by Richard Chang)
AAA??May. 18, 2013?11:53 AM ET Probe begins after Conn. commuter trains crash By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSENBy JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press??
Emergency workers arrive the scene of a train collision, Friday, may 17, 2013 in Fairfield, Conn. A New York-area commuter railroad says two trains have collided in Connecticut. The railroad says the accident involved a New York-bound train leaving New Haven. It derailed and hit a westbound train near Fairfield, Conn. Some cars on the second train also derailed. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT
Emergency workers arrive the scene of a train collision, Friday, may 17, 2013 in Fairfield, Conn. A New York-area commuter railroad says two trains have collided in Connecticut. The railroad says the accident involved a New York-bound train leaving New Haven. It derailed and hit a westbound train near Fairfield, Conn. Some cars on the second train also derailed. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT
Injured passengers are transported from the scene where two Metro North commuter trains collided, Friday, May 17, 2013 near Fairfield, Conn. Bill Kaempffer, a spokesman for Bridgeport public safety, told The Associated Press approximately 49 people were injured, including four with serious injuries. About 250 people were on board the two trains, he said. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT: CONNECTICUT POST, CHRISTIAN ABRAHAM
Passengers leave the area where two Metro North commuter trains collided, Friday, May 17, 2013 near Fairfield, Conn. Bill Kaempffer, a spokesman for Bridgeport public safety, told The Associated Press approximately 49 people were injured, including four with serious injuries. About 250 people were on board the two trains, he said. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT: CONNECTICUT POST, CHRISTIAN ABRAHAM
Injured passengers are transported from the scene where two Metro North commuter trains collided, Friday, May 17, 2013 near Fairfield, Conn. Bill Kaempffer, a spokesman for Bridgeport public safety, told The Associated Press approximately 49 people were injured, including four with serious injuries. About 250 people were on board the two trains, he said. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT: CONNECTICUT POST, CHRISTIAN ABRAHAM
Emergency personnel work at the scene where two Metro North commuter trains collided, Friday, May 17, 2013 near Fairfield, Conn. Bill Kaempffer, a spokesman for Bridgeport public safety, told The Associated Press approximately 49 people were injured, including four with serious injuries. About 250 people were on board the two trains, he said. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham) MANDATORY CREDIT: CONNECTICUT POST, CHRISTIAN ABRAHAM
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) ? Officials are describing a devastating scene of shattered cars and other damage where two trains packed with rush-hour commuters collided in Connecticut. They say it's fortunate no one was killed.
Seventy people were sent to the hospital Friday evening after the crash, which damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the Northeast Corridor.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy couldn't say when Metro-North Railroad service would be restored. The crash also caused Amtrak to suspend service between New York and Boston.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived Saturday and are expected to be on site for seven to 10 days.
They will look at the brakes and performance of the trains, the condition of the tracks, crew performance and train signal information, among other things.
NTSB board member Earl Weener says it's too early to speculate on a cause for the collision.
Associated PressNews Topics: Government and politics, General news, Rail accidents, Rail transportation industry, Accidents, Transportation accidents, Accidents and disasters, Transportation, Transportation and shipping, Industrial products and services, Industries, Business
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) ? Mobile phone service has been cut in areas of northeast Nigeria as the military sends more soldiers to the region to fight Islamic extremists.
An Associated Press journalist in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, found services unavailable since early Thursday morning. Mobile phone numbers belonging to government officials and military officials there and in neighboring Yobe state could not be reached.
A military spokesman in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for MTN, the country's dominant carrier, would only say "no comment" when asked if the government told them to turn off service in the region.
President Goodluck Jonathan placed Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states under emergency rule on Tuesday night. Authorities announced a curfew Thursday for Adamawa state.
May 15 (Reuters) - Post positions for the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes, to be run at Pimlico on Saturday (Post Position, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Odds) 1. Orb, Joel Rosario, Shug McGaughey, even 2. Goldencents, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill, 8-1 3. Titletown Five, Julien Leparoux, D. Wayne Lukas, 30-1 4. Departing, Brian Hernandez, Al Stall, 6-1 5. Mylute, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss, 5-1 6. Oxbow, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas, 15-1 7. Will Take Charge, Mike Smith, D. Wayne Lukas, 12-1 8. Govenor Charlie, Martin Garcia, Bob Baffert, 12-1 9. ...
May 15, 2013 ? Physicists at the Ruhr-Universit?t Bochum (RUB) have found out how tiny islands of magnetic material align themselves when sorted on a regular lattice -- by measurements at BESSY II. Contrary to expectations, the north and south poles of the magnetic islands did not arrange themselves in a zigzag pattern, but in chains. "The understanding of the driving interactions is of great technological interest for future hard disk drives, which are composed of small magnetic islands," says Prof. Dr. Hartmut Zabel of the Chair of Experimental Physics / Solid State Physics at the RUB.
Together with colleagues from the Helmholtz-Zentrum in Berlin, Bochum's researchers report in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Complete chaos in the normal state
Many atoms behave like compass needles, that is, like little magnetic dipoles with a north and a south pole. If you put them close together in a crystal, all the dipoles should align themselves to each other, making the material magnetic. However, this is not the case. A magnetic material is only created when specific quantum mechanical forces are at work. Normally, the forces between the atomic dipoles are by far too weak to cause magnetic order. Moreover, even at low temperatures, the thermal energy causes so much movement of the dipoles that complete chaos is the result. "However, the fundamental question remains of how magnetic dipoles would align themselves if the force between them was big enough," Prof. Zabel explains the research project.
Square lattice of magnetic islands
To investigate this, the researchers used lithographic methods to cut circular islands of a mere 150 nanometers in diameter from a thin magnetic layer. They arranged these in a regular square lattice. Each island contained about a million atomic dipoles. The forces between two islands were thus stronger by a factor of a million than that between two single atoms. If you leave these dipoles to their own resources, at low temperatures you can observe the arrangement that results exclusively from the interaction between the dipoles. They assume the most favourable pattern in terms of energy, the so-called ground state. The islands serve as a model for the behaviour of atomic dipoles.
Magnetic microscopy
The electron synchrotron BESSY II at the Helmholtz-Zentrum in Berlin is home to a special microscope, the photon emission electron microscope, with which the RUB physicists made the arrangement of the magnetic dipole islands visible. Using circularly polarised synchrotron light (X-ray photons), the photons stimulate specific electrons. These provide information on the orientation of the dipoles in the islands. The experiments were carried out at low temperatures so that the thermal movement could not interfere with the orientation of the dipoles.
Dipoles arrange themselves in chains
The magnetic dipoles formed chains, i.e. the north pole of one island pointed to the south pole of the next island. "This result was surprising," says Zabel. In the lattice, each dipole island has four neighbours to which it could align itself. You cannot tell in advance in which direction the north pole will ultimately point. "In fact, you would expect a zigzag arrangement," says the Bochum physicist. Based on the chain pattern observed in the experiment, the researchers showed that higher order interactions determine how the magnetisation was oriented. Not only dipolar, but also quadrupolar and octopolar interactions play a role. This means that a magnetic island exerts forces on four or eight neighbours at the same time.
Magnetic islands in the hard drives of the future
In future, hard disks will be made up of tiny magnetic islands (bit pattern). Each magnetic island will form a storage unit which can represent the bit states "0" and "1" -- encoded through the orientation of the dipole. For a functioning computer, you need a configuration in which the dipole islands interact as little as possible and can thus assume the states "0" and "1"independently of each other. For the technical application, a precise understanding of the driving interactions between magnetic islands is therefore crucial.
Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office via AFP - Getty Images
Akein Scott, the first suspect arrested by New Orleans police in a shooting at a parade Sunday.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
New Orleans police said Thursday that they had arrested a second suspect in a shooting rampage that left 19 people injured at a Mother?s Day parade.
Police identified the suspect as Shawn Scott, 24. His brother, Akein, was arrested late Wednesday and ordered held Thursday on $10 million bond. Each faces 20 counts of attempted murder, police said.
Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said four other people were arrested and charged with harboring the brothers.
The wounded at the parade included two 10-year-old children, a boy and a girl. Surveillance footage captured a man stepping into the street, opening fire on the crowd and running away.
On Monday, Serpas named Akein Scott as a suspect, flashed a photo of him and warned: ?We know more about you than you think.? He said Scott had previous arrests on gun and drug charges and was free on $15,000 bail.
The victims were marching in what is known as a second line parade, common in New Orleans: A brass band plays while marching in the streets, while a ?second line? of people follows the band, celebrating.
The parade was two blocks long and included about 400 people. The crime scene was a mile and a half from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, the centerpiece for the HBO series of the same name.
This story was originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 11:58 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government believes a Chinese missile launch this week was the first test of a new interceptor that could be used to destroy a satellite in orbit, one U.S. defense official told Reuters on Wednesday.
China launched a rocket into space on Monday but no objects were placed into orbit, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The object re-entered Earth's atmosphere above the Indian Ocean.
"We tracked several objects during the flight but did not observe the insertion of any objects into orbit and no objects associated with this launch remain in space," said Lieutenant Colonel Monica Matoush, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
The rocket reached 10,000 km (6,250 miles) above Earth, the highest suborbital launch seen worldwide since 1976, according to Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
China has said the rocket, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in western China, carried a science payload to study the earth's magnetosphere.
However, a U.S. defense official said U.S. intelligence showed that the rocket could be used in the future to carry an anti-satellite payload on a similar trajectory. Neither the U.S. official nor the Pentagon released details of what the Chinese rocket carried into space.
"It was a ground-based missile that we believe would be their first test of an interceptor that would be designed to go after a satellite that's actually on orbit," said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.
Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, declined to comment specifically on the rocket launch, but said China was clearly taking a more aggressive posture in space.
"Any time you have a nation-state looking to have a more aggressive posture in space, it's very concerning," Rogers said at a Reuters Cybersecurity Summit.
The United States remains concerned about China's development of anti-satellite capabilities after Beijing shot a missile at one of its own defunct satellites in orbit in 2007, creating an enormous amount of debris in space.
Monday's rocket launch was similar to launches using the Blue Scout Junior rocket that were conducted by the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s for research on Earth's magnetosphere, McDowell said in an emailed response to questions.
He said all the previous suborbital launches above 10,000 km (6,250 miles) had been conducted by the United States. All China's previous missile tests went to less than 2,000 km (1,250 miles), although Beijing had launched orbital vehicles higher, including to the Moon, he said.
Most scientific suborbital launches are at most 1,500 km (940 miles) or so, McDowell added. The 1976 launch was Gravity Probe A, when NASA and McDowell's institute worked together to launch an atomic clock to 10,280 km (6,425 miles).
Monday's launch came less than a week after U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter unveiled what he called a "long overdue" effort to safeguard U.S. national security satellites and develop ways to counter the space capabilities of potential adversaries.
U.S. military space officials are taking steps to improve the resilience of national security satellites in orbit, the defense official said. These include using new wave forms to make it more difficult for adversaries to jam signals from space, putting U.S. sensors on commercial satellites and using terrestrial high-frequency communications.
Last week, the Pentagon released an 83-page report on Chinese military developments that highlighted China's increasing space capabilities and said Beijing was pursuing a variety of activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.
(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Cynthia Osterman)
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