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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

New study supports view that Lewy bodies are not the primary cause of cell death in PD

Public release date: 9-Jan-2012
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Contact: Daphne Watrin
d.watrin@iospress.nl
31-206-883-355
IOS Press

Findings published in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease

Amsterdam, NL, January 9, 2011 The pathology of Parkinson's disease is characterized by a loss of dopamine-producing neurons in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra (SN), an area of the brain associated with motor control, along with the development of ?-synuclein (?S) protein in the form of Lewy bodies (LB) in the neurons that survive. The spread of LB pathology is thought to progress along with the clinical course of Parkinson's disease, although recent studies suggest that they are not the toxic cause of cell death. A new study published in The Journal of Parkinson's Disease finds no support for a primary pathogenic role of LBs, as neither their distribution nor density was associated with the severity of nigral cell loss.

"We investigated the relationship between nigral dopaminergic cell loss, distribution and density of ?-synuclein immunoreactive LBs, and the duration of motor symptoms in 97 patients with Parkinson's disease," explains lead investigator Andrew J. Lees, MD, of Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders and the Reta Lila Weston Institute for Neurological Studies, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, UK. "Despite the reasonably close correlation between neuronal density in SN and severity of bradykinesia and rigidity in Parkinson's disease, our results suggest that nigral cell loss is gradual and there is considerable variability, which may explain the clinical heterogeneity."

Researchers confirmed that both neuronal number and density in SN in Parkinson's disease decrease over time. The density of nigral neurons was estimated to decrease by 2% each year after confirmation of the clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, but showed marked heterogeneity across patients. Some patients with longer duration of illness still had a significant number of preserved nigral neurons at the time of death. An average of 15% of surviving nigral neurons contained LBs and the age-adjusted proportion of LB-bearing neurons appeared relatively stable through the disease duration. "This could be explained by a passive 'one-pass' phenomenon where the LBs appear at the beginning of the disease and then decrease at the same rate as nigral neurons are lost, or alternatively that a dynamic 'turnover' occurs with some LBs continuously produced and destroyed at the same rate," explains Dr. Lees.

Nigral neuron density was unrelated to the Braak PD stage of the disease (i.e. distribution of LBs in the brain) or to cortical LB densities. "In our view, the fact that neither the widespread regional distribution of LBs nor increased cortical LB densities were found directly linked with pars compacta nigral cell loss lends support to the view that they are not the primary cause of the pathological process leading to cell death in vulnerable regions in the brain in Parkinson's disease," concludes Dr. Lees.

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The article is "Disentangling the Relationship between Lewy Bodies and Nigral Neuronal Loss in Parkinson's Disease" by Laura Parkkinen, Sean S O'Sullivan, Catherine Collins, Aviva Petrie, Janice L. Holton, Tamas Revesz, and Andrew J. Lees. Journal of Parkinson's Disease. 1(2011) 277-286. DOI 10.3233/JPD-2011-11046. Published by IOS Press.

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New study supports view that Lewy bodies are not the primary cause of cell death in PD

Public release date: 9-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Daphne Watrin
d.watrin@iospress.nl
31-206-883-355
IOS Press

Findings published in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease

###

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/ip-nss010912.php

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Chiefs pick Romeo Crennel as head coach

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Going 2-1 and stunning then-undefeated Green Bay as Kansas City's interim head coach meant a lot more than gratification for Romeo Crennel.

It also persuaded the Kansas City Chiefs to give the affable defensive specialist a second chance to be an NFL head coach.

The Chiefs announced Monday that Crennel was the official replacement for the fired Todd Haley, removing the interim tag he bore for the last three weeks of the season.

"The three games had a lot to do with where we arrived at this decision," general manager Scott Pioli said. "Some of the things we saw was a great deal of accountability and consistency. There was also a different energy to the football team. A lot of it had to do with those last three games."

Warm and personable, the 64-year-old Crennel is a sharp departure from Haley. Often called a "players' coach" he's been known to write off mistakes as youthful indiscretions. Ironically, being soft with players was a criticism when he was fired after four years as head coach in Cleveland with a 24-40 record.

He was an instant hit with Chiefs players while serving as Haley's defensive coordinator the past two years. After the Chiefs beat the Packers 19-14 on Dec. 18 in their first game with Crennel in charge, the Chiefs chanted his nickname, "RAC! RAC!" as they ran up the tunnel.

He was always considered the front-runner to replace Haley, even though Pioli said he interviewed "more than half a dozen" candidates.

"I'm not exactly sure what a player's coach is," Crennel said. "Sometimes I think players think that a coach who is on their side is a player's coach, who always rules in favor of them may be a players' coach. I know that's not always the case with me. I think that basically, I'm a good guy. And I think this is what players appreciate ? players appreciate honesty. Players appreciate you telling them like it is. They don't always want to hear it. But that's what they appreciate. I try to tell them what I believe, what I feel and how I think it should be done."

With a core of good, young players, the Chiefs could be poised to become dominant in the AFC West. Crennel is the fifth head coach in Kansas City since the Chiefs' last playoff win in the 1993 season

Shortly after winning a Super Bowl title as New England's defensive coordinator in 2004, Crennel was hired by Browns owner Randy Lerner, who hoped he would bring needed discipline and accountability to his young team.

However, the Browns continued to have issues on and off the field and there was a general feeling Crennel was too lenient. When wide receiver Braylon Edwards cut his foot during training camp while running around in his socks, Crennel downplayed the incident as youthful immaturity, saying at the time: "Kids are kids and you look at kids and they take their shoes off and run around all the time."

He was also criticized for using a coin flip to pick his starting quarterback before the 2007 exhibition opener. The Browns finished 10-6 in his third season, narrowly missing the playoffs, but fell to 4-12 in 2008, losing their last six games. Against Pittsburgh, Crennel was 0-8, including a 31-0 blowout in his final game.

The Cleveland experience has helped him be a better head coach, he said.

"Probably if I hadn't gone through that experience, I wouldn't be sitting here now," he said. "When you're in the seat for the first time, there are a lot of things that even though you're an assistant and think you have all the answers and know exactly what's going to happen, you don't know what's going to happen because things occur every day that you're not quite ready for. That's one of the things that helped me in these last three games."

Crennel's lone defeat as interim coach came in overtime against Oakland, which knocked the Chiefs (7-9) from playoff contention. But they closed the season by beating Denver, giving them some momentum going into 2012.

One of the biggest decisions facing Crennel and Pioli will be at quarterback. Veteran Kyle Orton, acquired shortly before Haley was fired, replaced the ineffective Tyler Palko in the last three games and engineered wins over two playoff teams, the Packers and Broncos. Orton is an unrestricted free agent, but many fans want him signed and competing with incumbent Matt Cassel, who was out most of the second half of the season with a hand injury.

"I'm probably not sitting here if Kyle hadn't done the job that he did," Crennel said. "And I'm very appreciative of that. I'm also appreciative of the fact he is an unrestricted free agent and we have to go through the process."

Crennel was also noncommittal when asked about his staff, but did leave the door open that he could be his own defensive coordinator. First-year offensive coordinator Bill Muir came under criticism even though the offense was greatly weakened by season-ending injuries at the beginning of the year to tight end Tony Moeaki and Pro Bowl running back Jamaal Charles.

Pioli also spoke to former Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher, Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin and former Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio.

"One thing RAC said at the time was, 'I want you to go out and talk to other people because if you make this decision, I want you to know that you're making the right decision,'" Pioli said.

Many players had said they wanted to win the last three games to help Crennel get the job.

"Throughout the year, we were all over a little bit. We came to a common ground over the last three weeks," said fullback Le'Ron McClain. "We started doing good when Romeo stepped in."

Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNfl-TopStories/~3/HnhE9xOqt1o/1

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IDEX Online: India mandates gold hallmarking

By Vinod Kuriyan for IDEX Online

Jan 9, 2012

Mumbai--The Indian government today approved a proposal by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to make the hallmarking of gold mandatory. Until now, hallmarking, which was introduced in 2001, has been entirely voluntary.

The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cleared the proposal by approving amendments to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 1986, that aims to expand the ambit of mandatory hallmarking to include more products, including gold, sources said.

The BIS currently hallmarks and certifies about 77 items, including cement, mineral water and milk products. Gold, however, could not be hallmarked as it was not included in a list specified by the Industries Development and Regulation Act. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs was empowered to hallmark and certify only those items specified in the list.

The new proposal also aims to strengthen the penal provision for better and effective compliance with the provision of BIS Act.

This article was first published on IDEX Online on Jan. 4.

Source: http://www.nationaljeweler.com/article_detail?id=27641

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Monday, January 9, 2012

Alcoa takes aim at high-cost European smelters (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Alcoa Inc (AA.N) said on Monday it plans to close its Portovesme, Italy, smelter and slash output at two Spanish smelters as the U.S. aluminum producer takes aim at its high-cost European operations.

Uncompetitive electricity prices and sustained low aluminum prices ton have pushed the plants into the red.

But the plan, which is part of the measures announced last week to reduce output by 12 percent by the end of June, will throw further doubt on the long-term future of Alcoa's embattled smelting operations in Europe.

Shuttering Portovesme, with a view to permanent closure, will remove 150,000 tons per year of capacity and will account for majority of the 240,000 tons, or 5 percent of Alcoa's global capacity, being cut in Europe.

The remaining 90,000 tons will come from curtailments at Spanish plants, La Coru?a, with annual capacity of 87,000 tons, and Avil?s, with 93,000 tons.

The cuts in Spain, which are planned to be partial and temporary, will not necessarily be evenly distributed between the two plants, a spokesman said.

The company will now begin the consultation process to close Portovesme permanently.

But it is likely to face strong opposition from the trade unions, which fought a ferocious but unsuccessful battle to save Alcoa's Fusina plant in 2009 and from the government which is waging its own war to save the country's troubled economy.

"It's about time. They would have closed (Portovesme) years ago if they could have. It makes metal for a market that is totally oversupplied," said one trader on hearing the news.

The future of the Spanish plants is brighter than Portovesme, which has faced closure for several years already.

"For Spain, it's a bit more positive. In terms of cost, Italy was the worst," said a source familiar with the plants.

"With Portovesme, I think there were many factors coming together, the energy contract and it's a dirty smelter, Alcoa may be afraid of a new EU investigation," he added.

News that European smelters, the most expensive to operate in Alcoa's global asset base, would fall victim to the latest cost-cutting drive was not a surprise, particularly given the company's struggle to source energy at competitive prices in the region.

Doubt was cast on the region when the European Commission ruled in 2009 that energy tariffs agreed with the Italian government were illegal subsidies and launched a probe of its Spanish contracts.

Shutting Portovesme will mark the end of primary smelting for the company in Italy and leave Alcoa with only one smelter operating at full capacity in Europe -- the San Ciprian smelter in Spain with 228,000 tonnes per year of capacity.

Alcoa has appealed the Commission ruling arguing that competitively priced energy is key to the survival of its European smelters. Electricity accounts for a third of aluminum production costs.

But the closures come at a decisive time with power contracts for the Italian and Spanish smelters due to expire at the end of this year.

Traders expect the latest measures to be used as a bargaining chip in what will be fraught negotiations.

Its problems in Europe contrast with its experience in Saudi Arabia where power is cheaper and it is plowing over $10 billion into building a 740,000 ton per year aluminum smelter, a rolling mill, an alumina refinery and a bauxite mine with Ma'aden.

"There's still doubt over the power contracts. Europe found against them in Italy and they're appealing, so technically there's a risk of them finding the same in Spain," said a second trader.

"(The plants) are loss making. They'll be even more loss making if the subsidies are not there," he said.

Suspending primary output will force Alcoa to source raw material for its downstream operations in Europe from the open market or from its other smelters outside of the euro zone, such as in Iceland and Norway.

This is not the first shutdown in Italy. The company suspended operations at its Fusina plant alongside Portovesme following the commission's ruling in 2009.

Fusina remains shuttered, although Portovesme was reopened after hammering out a new power agreement in September 2010.

But these are Alcoa's first cuts to active capacity since the global economic crisis in 2008.

Last week, it announced it will permanently close its smelter in Alcoa, Tennessee, and two potlines at its Rockdale, Texas, smelter, representing 7 percent of the company's total capacity. That capacity has been idle since 2009.

The total employment impact from the Spanish and Italian measures will not be determined until consultations are completed. Current employment at the three plants is about 1,500 people, Alcoa said.

Alcoa made the announcement on Monday, just hours before the release of fourth-quarter earnings, which are expected to reveal a loss on the back of low aluminum prices and rising costs.

In addition to the closures and curtailments, Alcoa said it will take aggressive action to reduce the cost of raw materials and will adjust capacity across the company's global refining system to reflect internal demand as well as prevailing market conditions.

Alcoa stock rose 2.4 percent to $9.38 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Steve James and Josephine Mason; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120109/bs_nm/us_alcoa_smelters

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