bananas
bananas's JournalFor Patients with Parkinson's Disease, Expensive Placebo Works Better
For Patients with Parkinson's Disease, Expensive Placebo Works Better
Robbie Gonzalez
Sunday 7:30am
In a recent study, an "expensive" salt solution was shown to to be significantly more effective at managing the symptoms of patients with Parkinson's disease than an "inexpensive" one. The salt solutions were identical placebos.
Scientific American's Karen Hopkins summarizes the study's design and findings:
To examine whether the perceived cost could be a factor, researchers told 12 people with Parkinson's that they would be receiving two formulations of a new medication. The patients believed that one version of the drug cost $100 a dose, while the other one cost 15 times as much.
The results? Participants who started with the supposedly high-priced drug showed 28 percent greater improvement in motor skills than those who got the cheaper placebo first.
The researchers – lead by Alberto J. Espay, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Cincinnati – reported their findings in this week's issue of the journal Neurology. "Expensive placebo significantly improved motor function and decreased brain activation in a direction and magnitude comparable to, albeit less than, levodopa" the researchers write.
At The New York Times, Nicholas Bakalar adds that "the effect of the expensive placebo was not significantly different from that of levodopa, the most effective medication for Parkinson's disease." This observation says as much about the potency of the placebo affect as it does about the neurological mechanisms of Parkinson's disease, and, to a lesser extent, the inadequacies of levodopa. It's worth unpacking.
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Exclusive - The FAA: regulating business on the moon
Source: Reuters
The United States government has taken a new, though preliminary, step to encourage commercial development of the moon.
According to documents obtained by Reuters, U.S. companies can stake claims to lunar territory through an existing licensing process for space launches.
The Federal Aviation Administration, in a previously undisclosed late-December letter to Bigelow Aerospace, said the agency intends to “leverage the FAA’s existing launch licensing authority to encourage private sector investments in space systems by ensuring that commercial activities can be conducted on a non-interference basis.”
In other words, experts said, Bigelow could set up one of its proposed inflatable habitats on the moon, and expect to have exclusive rights to that territory - as well as related areas that might be tapped for mining, exploration and other activities.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/03/us-usa-moon-business-idUSKBN0L715F20150203
Factbox: The U.S.-India nuclear deal
Source: Reuters
The nuclear "breakthrough understanding" between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to allay U.S. concerns about industry liability and unlock billions of dollars in investments into Indian power projects.
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3) How does the agreement address liability?
The agreement endorses the principle of strict liability, which 'channels' costs arising from a nuclear accident to the plant operator and requires it to pay no-fault compensation. Negotiators from both sides say the Indian side presented a body of law, precedent and opinion supporting the case that its laws and regulations meet international standards.
A key clause in India's 2010 nuclear liability law does, however, allow a plant operator to seek secondary recourse against a supplier - a legacy of the unresolved claims arising from the 1984 disaster at a U.S.-owned plant in Bhopal. To address this, India will set up an insurance pool to cover liability up to a hard cap.
4) How would the insurance pool work?
The state-backed insurance pool would cover operator liabilities of up to 15 billion rupees ($244 million). Any recourse sought by the operator against a supplier could not exceed this figure. Insurance premiums have yet to be determined, but for suppliers they would be a "fraction" of the amount paid by the operator.
5) What happens if there is a Fukushima-type disaster?
The Indian government would cover additional costs of up to 300 million IMF Special Drawing Rights ($420 million), in line with international practice.
Beyond that, India would need to join the IAEA Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC), due to enter force in April. By ratifying the convention, India would gain access to international funds with risk shared according to how many nuclear plants a country has.
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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-u-india-nuclear-deal-050359001--sector.html
San Onofre was shut down because the shiny new steam generators had a serious manufacturing defect; they were manufactured in Japan by Mitsubishi.
Fukushima reactor 4 had a serious manufacturing defect in its pressure vessel; by pure luck, reactor 4 was off for refueling when the earthquake hit. It was manufactured by Babcock-Hitachi in Japan.
Fukushima Engineer Says He Covered Up Flaw at Shut Reactor No. 4
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Mitsuhiko Tanaka says he helped conceal a manufacturing defect in the $250 million steel vessel installed at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 4 reactor while working for a unit of Hitachi Ltd. in 1974. The reactor, which Tanaka has called a “time bomb,” was shut for maintenance when the March 11 earthquake triggered a 7-meter (23-foot) tsunami that disabled cooling systems at the plant, leading to explosions and radiation leaks.
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Tanaka says the reactor pressure vessel inside Fukushima’s unit No. 4 was damaged at a Babcock-Hitachi foundry in Kure City, in Hiroshima prefecture, during the last step of a manufacturing process that took 2 1/2 years and cost tens of millions of dollars. If the mistake had been discovered, the company might have been bankrupted, he said.
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Pakistan successfully test fires Stealth Nuclear Cruise Missile
Source: Asian Tribune
Pakistan on Monday conducted a successful flight test of the indigenously developed Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) “Ra’ad”, said an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release.
The Ra’ad missile, with a range of 350 km, enables Pakistan to achieve 'strategic standoff capability' on land and at sea.
“Cruise Technology” is extremely complex and has been developed by only a few countries in the world. The state of the art Ra’ad Cruise Missile with stealth capabilities is a low altitude, terrain hugging missile with high maneuverability; can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads with pin point accuracy.
Director General Strategic Plans Division, Lieutenant General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, while congratulating the scientists and engineers on achieving yet another milestone of historic significance, termed it a major step towards strengthening Pakistan’s full spectrum credible minimum deterrence capability. Pakistan’s strategic pursuits are aimed at achieving strategic stability in the region, he said.
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Read more: http://www.asiantribune.com/node/86338
Illinois nuclear shutdown threatened
Source: Herald-Review
Chicago-based Exelon Nuclear has said it will be forced to close its Clinton Power Station, along with shuttering similar plants in Ogle County and Rock Island, if the state doesn't come up with policy changes to make the stations more profitable.
Exelon has said the energy marketplace of today is unfair because its stations are having to compete with alternate power sources, such as wind energy, which enjoy tax breaks. And it said the nuclear plants deserve some sort of financial incentive for generating clean power that doesn't produce the carbon dioxide emissions that coal stations send up their smokestacks.
Exelon said it won't start making any decisions on the fate of Clinton and the other power plants until June and might be willing to wait longer if it sees lawmakers striving to come up with a legislative solution.
But Bill Stoermer, a senior site communications manager based at Exelon's Quad Cities Generating Station, said the nuclear clock is ticking.
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Read more: http://herald-review.com/news/local/illinois-nuclear-shutdown-threatened/article_79b16ed2-b365-5f6f-9512-fdd1d40c4bc3.html
It's time to shut them down.
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