First Automatic said its driving assistant dongle and related iOS app would be ready in May, and then it said the app needed until August to fully bake. Well, it's now October, and at long last, it appears the San Francisco-based startup is finally ready to launch its connected car platform to the ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/o5d96h-q6Bg/DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's economy grew 6.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2013 from 6.4 percent in the same period a year ago, but weakened compared with the first quarter, official data showed on Wednesday.
The economy grew by 7.5 percent in this year's first quarter, according to the state-run National Bureau of Statistics.
East Africa's second-largest economy is targeting GDP growth of 7 percent this year, slightly higher than the 6.9 percent achieved in 2012. Growth in the second quarter was driven by growth in financial services and communications sectors, while the fishing sector lagged, NBS said in a report.
Financial services grew fastest at 15.2 percent, from 11 percent in the same quarter in 2012.
Tanzania's economy has been growing at more than 5 percent a year for nearly a decade but infrastructure spending has lagged, with poor transport links and energy shortages blamed for uneven growth.
Transport and communication grew at 14.8 percent compared with 13.6 percent in the same period in 2012, but was at a slower rate than the 22.2 percent it attained in the first quarter of this year.
Construction grew by 12.3 percent, compared with 4.3 percent in the year-ago period, while mining and quarrying in Africa's fourth-largest gold producer rebounded to 4.3 percent from a negative growth rate of 5.1 percent a year ago.
Gold output fell to 9.827 tonnes in the second quarter of 2013 compared to 9.963 tonnes a year ago.
"The growth rate (of the mining sector) was attributed to increased production of diamonds and Tanzanite," NBS said.
Tanzanite is a blue/purple mineral found only in Tanzania.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tanzania-says-gdp-growth-rises-6-7-pct-120030022--sector.htmlLOS ANGELES (AP) — "Sherlock" starring Benedict Cumberbatch will return to public TV in January, keeping company on Sunday nights with the "Downton Abbey" crowd.
Season three of the modern Sherlock Holmes mystery series will began Jan. 19, PBS said Wednesday. It was previously announced that the fourth season of "Downton" will begin Jan 5.
The scheduling reflects PBS' new strategy of pairing dramas on Sunday, part of a broader effort to build "flow within a given night in our schedule," said Beth Hoppe, PBS' chief programming executive.
Prime-time viewership on Sunday, home to primarily British dramas, grew 26 percent last season with the new approach, Hoppe said, and "Sherlock" and "Downton Abbey" were seen as good partners.
Overall, PBS' prime-time ratings were up 7 percent last season compared to the year before, Hoppe said.
"Downton Abbey," the hit drama about the lives and loves of landed gentry and their servants, will be preceded by a Dec. 1 special, "Return to Downton Abbey." Hosted by Susan Sarandon, it will offer a look at past seasons and a peek at the one ahead.
As in the past, the drama's new season already is in progress on Britain's ITV. PBS has resisted timing the U.S. to the U.K. airings, saying the January debut works better for its schedule — a move that's allowed spoilers to cross the Atlantic.
But PBS relented with BBC's "Sherlock," which is scheduled closer to its yet-to-be announced British airing, Hoppe said.
Other returning U.K. dramas include "Call the Midwife" and "Mr. Selfridge" starring Jeremy Piven, both debuting Sunday, March 30, and "The Bletchley Circle" on April 13.
The busy Benedict Cumberbatch, whose current movies include "The Fifth Estate" and "12 Years a Slave," is part of another PBS program, "Hawking," a Jan. 29 documentary about British physicist Stephen Hawking as told by him. Cumberbatch, who played Hawking in a 2004 TV movie, is a friend of the scientist and appears in the film, Hoppe said.
A lineup of science and nature programming for April includes a three-part special with the working title "Inside Animal Minds," debuting April 9 on "Nova."
More midseason programs scheduled to air on public TV stations:
— "Salinger" (Jan. 21), an "American Masters" documentary about the late "The Catcher in the Rye" author J.D. Salinger that includes interviews with his friends and colleagues.
— "Barrymore" (Jan. 31), a "Great Performances" presentation of Christopher Plummer's stage performance as John Barrymore.
— "The Amish: Shunned" (Feb. 4), an "American Experience" documentary that follows seven former members of the Amish community as they adjust to a new life.
— "Story of the Jews" (March 25), a five-part series with historian and author Simon Schama examining the Jewish experience from ancient times to now.
— "Muscle Shoals" (April 21), an "Independent Lens" look at the fertile musical Alabama breeding ground, with the perspectives from Mick Jagger, Etta James, Clarence Carter and others.
Photo silhouette by Slate. Photo by Steve Marcus/Reuters
Scotchguard your skorts. Disinfect your nylons. Purell your disco purse. It’s getting skanky out there … AGAIN!
I’m referring, of course, to the new wave of porn-inspired pop divas who are attempting to sell records by flaunting their private areas and jiggling their fleshy assets with unprecedented abandon.
How did we all get so yeasty and slutty? Why have we chosen to live in a world where hoochie hotness is the only currency? How much is that dildo in the window, the one with the waggly bit on the end?
In order to answer these important questions, we need to go back, way back, to a time when hookers were hookers and pop singers were pop singers and never the twain did meet:
Los Angeles. It’s the late 1970s, and I am watching the girls working the end of my block on Sunset. Wearing bikinis and heels, even in the pouring rain, these drug-addled sex workers are a sorry sight. Donna Summer’s big hit wafts from a passing car:
Bad girls, sad girls
You're such a dirty bad girl
Beep-beep, uh-uh
You’re bad girl, you’re sad girl
You’re such a dirty bad girl
Beep-beep, uh-uh.
Over the subsequent decades, something weird happens. The sad part evaporates, but the bad part lingers. The spotlight focuses upon skank style and begins, slowly but surely, to fetishize, glamorize, and exalt anything remotely connected with pimping, hooking, and stripping. Porno chic is born. Suddenly, shockingly, ball gags are the new fanny packs.
Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images
Two decades after Donna Summer’s Bad Girls, in 2002, Christina Aguilera releases her album Stripped, which includes the track titled “Dirrty.” A David LaChapelle–directed video suggests that Ms. Aguilera might well be in need of a medical intervention. Or maybe there is a Taser lodged in her vagina? Either way, she appears to be suffering from some kind of erotic epilepsy. It is a “me-so-horny” act that makes the chick in Full Metal Jacket look like Maria von Trapp. Aguilera’s record company responds to criticism by claiming that their artist was “reaching out for something more real.” The way the video made it look, that “something” was a dose of the clap. No offense.
At the time I sent up many warning flares. I cautioned the world about the effect on Aguilera’s tween audience. Little girls are not supposed to be thrashing around like cracked-out pole dancers. Instead they should be skipping around the lawn in a Ralph Lauren-ish backyard, wearing little bonnets and starched Bonpoint sundresses and singing songs like “Mabel, Mabel, Set the Table.”
Suddenly, shockingly, ball gags are the new fanny packs.
Ever eager to see things from both sides, I also cried foul on behalf of the strippers of the world. Their choreographic repertoire was, courtesy of La Aguilera, being hijacked by little girls. Ditto their clothing. When the entire female population starts dressing and acting like a bunch of strippers, how, pray, are the strippers supposed to dress to attract attention? Loss of earnings! Hello!
After Aguilera there was, give or take a wardrobe malfunction or two, a comparative lull in the porno-pop action. In the intervening years singers like Adele (very Maggie Smith playing Miss Jean Brodie) and Lily Allen (sneakers with maxi skirts) and Florence Welch (pre-Raphaelite patio gowns) strenuously avoided dressing like sex workers. Porno style migrated temporarily away from pop music and found a new petri dish: reality television. Shows like Bad Girls Club and I Love New York—the participants said charming things like, “I’m so ghetto my pussy smells like menthol”—provided a welcoming skank-friendly environment.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker/Slate. Photos by Getty.
The reality show milieu could only contain the stripperfest for so long, and now it’s BACK! And nastier than ever. A second wave of porno pop is currently raging across our screens, and Doris Day it ain’t. We are descending into a hoochie hellhole. And most young people—particularly those young gals who cut their teeth on Aguilera’s G-strings—are totally unfazed. Everything seems “totes norms” to them. In fact, so inured are they to our oversexed culture that, when they discover the artists of yore on YouTube, they are totally dumbfounded by the lack of throbbing, overt sexual hotness. Yes, that gal Dusty Springfield has a great voice, but why isn’t she showing more cleavage and buttcrack ? Siouxsie Sioux, Nina Hagen, and Debbie Harry were all so creative, but why all the clothes? Why the lack of pasties? And Joni Mitchell? What’s with the caftans and long skirts? Is she covering up a skin complaint? And that belter Janis Joplin? If she was so wild and groovy, how come she kept her velour, tie-die pantsuits on? The least she could have done was pull out one of her boobies.
If you think I am exaggerating about the current pornsplosion, then you probably have not seen the new erotically sinister, description-defying Rihanna video, the one for her current hit “Pour It Up,” which has been viewed more than 56 million times:
(At the time of this writing, Rihanna is generating more ink. After having viewed a sex show in Phuket, Thailand, during which a lady pulled live animals from her hoo-hah, RiRi tweeted about what she saw, and the promoters were all arrested. Happy entrails!)
And then there’s Britney’s latest offering, entitled “Work Bitch”:
Here our gal BritBrit has taken on the dual role of whore and sadistic oppressor. She dispenses profound and caring nuggets of advice while thrashing other women with whips—You want a Maserati? You better work, bitch!—after which she dynamites large groups of fellow hookers, blowing their bodies to smithereens. Simone De Beauvoir, Kate Millett, and Germaine Greer, eat your hearts out.
Call me crazy, but I always thought of clothing, however minimal, as a simple system of nonverbal communication. It allows us to telegraph whatever we want to the outside world.
A twinset and pearls indicates a certain conservatism. A leather catsuit screams, “I’m a hired assassin!” An Issey Miyake cocoon suggests that you might be an architect or a pretentious poet. And dressing like a porn-slut indicates, loudly and clearly, that you are more than willing to give head in the stationery closet. What does that have to do with being a songstress?
A cursory glance at these porn ’n’ pop mélanges will leave you wondering where it will all end. How far are we from the day when singers will record their songs midshag? Not very. The next time Miley Cyrus appears on an award show, she will doubtless unzip a dude’s pants and go the whole hog. And then what? Bestiality? Not with my Norwich terrier. No way. Put him down, Miley! He’s too old for you, and he’s not in the mood.
Come back, Lawrence Welk! We miss you.
DANVERS, Mass. (AP) — A well-liked teacher was found slain in woods behind this quiet Massachusetts town's high school, and a 14-year-old boy who was found walking along a state highway overnight was charged with killing her.
Blood found in a second-floor school bathroom helped lead investigators to the body of Colleen Ritzer, a 24-year-old math teacher at Danvers High School who was reported missing when she didn't come home from work on Tuesday, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said.
"She was a very, very respected, loved teacher," Blodgett said.
The suspect, Philip Chism, was arraigned on a murder charge Wednesday and ordered held without bail. The teenager, described by classmates as soft-spoken and pleasant, also did not come home from school the day before and was spotted walking along Route 1 in the neighboring town of Topsfield at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Officials didn't release a cause of death and haven't discussed a motive in the killing.
A court filing said Ritzer and Chism were known to each other from the high school, but it did not elaborate. The arrest was made based on statements by the suspect and corroborating evidence at multiple scenes, investigators said in court documents.
Ritzer's family said they are mourning the death of their "amazing, beautiful daughter and sister."
"Everyone that knew and loved Colleen knew of her passion for teaching and how she mentored each and every one of her students," the family said in a statement provided by her uncle Dale Webster.
At his arraignment in adult court in Salem, Chism's defense attorney argued for the proceeding to be closed and her client to be allowed to stay hidden because of his age. The judge denied the request. The lawyer, Denise Regan, declined to comment outside court. No statement had been released from his family by Wednesday evening.
The tall, lanky teenager had moved to Massachusetts from Tennessee before the start of the school year and was a top scorer on the school's junior varsity soccer team, said Kyle Cahill, a junior who also plays soccer. He said the team had been wondering where Chism was when he skipped a team dinner Tuesday night.
"We're all just a family. It just amazes me really," Cahill said. "He wasn't violent at all. He was really the opposite of aggressive."
Ritzer had a Twitter account where she gave homework assignments, encouraged students and described herself as a "math teacher often too excited about the topics I'm teaching."
She was a 2011 graduate of Assumption College in Worcester, a school spokeswoman said Wednesday. She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in math, a minor in psychology and a secondary education concentration, according to the college's 2011 commencement program.
One of her former students, Chris Weimert, 17, said she was a warm, welcoming person who would stand outside her classroom and say hello to students she didn't teach. He said she had been at the school for two years.
"She was the nicest teacher anyone could ever have. She always had a warm smile on her face," he said.
Ryan Kelleher, a senior, said students related to the young teacher, who liked to wear jeans and UGG boots just like the teenagers she taught. Kelleher, who also plays soccer, said the arrest of the soft-spoken Chism didn't make sense to him.
"From what I know about him and seeing him every day, it just doesn't add up that he would do such a thing, unless this was all an act to fool somebody," the 17-year-old said.
Ritzer lived at home with her 20-year-old brother and her sister, a high school senior. The close-knit family was often outside, barbecuing, spending time together and enjoying each other's company, neighbors said.
Mary Duffy has lived next door to the Ritzers in the suburban neighborhood in Andover since the family moved there more than two decades ago. She had known Colleen Ritzer from the time she was a baby and said the Ritzers' oldest child had just one life ambition: to be a high school math teacher.
"All I ever heard is that she loved her job," Duffy said.
All public schools in Danvers, about 20 miles north of Boston, were closed Wednesday.
The Boston Red Sox had a moment of silence for Ritzer Wednesday before Game 1 of the World Series.
Hundreds turned out for a candlelight vigil Wednesday evening on the parking lot of the school. Many wore pink, Ritzer's favorite color. They prayed and sang and, at the end of the vigil, they placed their candles along with some stuffed animals in the middle of a ring they have formed for the gathering.
"She supported all of us. We should be there to support her," said Danvers senior Courtney Arnoldy, 18, who had Ritzer for a teacher.
Ritzer is the second teacher allegedly killed by a student in the U.S. this week. A Sparks, Nev., middle school teacher was allegedly shot by a 12-year-old student on Monday.
___
Associated Press writer Lynne Tuohy in Andover and news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York City contributed to this report.
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 23-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Nuria Noriega
comunicacion@cnio.es
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO)
Acute dendritic leukaemia is a rare type of leukaemia, but one with the worst prognosisthe average patient survival rate is just 12-14 monthsthat is difficult to treat. Juan Cruz Cigudosa's team, from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre's (CNIO) Molecular Cytogenetics Group, has for the first time sequenced the exome the coding, or protein-generating, regions of the genome of dendritic cell leukaemia.
The analyses, published in Leukemia, the world's leading journal in onco- haematology, uncover new genetic pathways that could revolutionise treatment guidelines for these patients.
'EPIGENETIC' GENES ARE ALTERED IN MOST CASES
For the first time in human leukaemias, scientists have described mutations in four genes (IKZF3, HOXB9, UBE2G2 and ZEB2) that have important cellular functions, such as gene regulation and cellular differentiation.
"In addition to these genes, we have found that more than half of the cases harbour mutations in epigenetic genes at diagnosis those genes that introduce chemical modifications in the DNA something that had never been observed in this type of leukaemia", says Cigudosa. "Therapies
directed against these epigenetic genes already exist, so these patients could also benefit from them".
In summary, the genetic profile of acute dendritic cell leukaemia, currently treated as a lymphoid leukaemia, is similar to that of myeloid leukaemia. "These results suggests a change in the treatment guidelines for these patients, who were completely misplaced", says Juliane Menezes, the first author of the study.
According to Cigudosa, "this study is a clear example of the role of genomics in translational research being carried out by Spanish scientists, in general, and more specifically at CNIO".
To carry out this work, the authors analysed the exome of three patients diagnosed with dendritic cell leukaemia and validated the results using a panel of 38 genes and 25 additional patients (known as a targeted resequencing strategy), coming from 9 Spanish hospitals.
###
This research was conducted in collaboration with CNIO's Bioinformatics Core Unit, led by David Pisano, the Pathology Services at the Marques de Valdecilla Hospital in Santander, led by Miguel Angel Piris, as well as several Spanish Genetics and Haematology Services.
Acknowledgements: the study has been supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the Carlos III Health Institute, the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) and 'La Caixa' Foundation.
Reference article:
Exome sequencing reveals novel and recurrent mutations with clinical impact in blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm. Menezes J, Acquadro F, Wiseman M, Gómez-López G, Salgado RN, Talavera-Casañas JG, Buño I, Cervera JV, Montes-Moreno S, Hernández-Rivas JM, Ayala R, Calasanz MJ, Larrayoz MJ, Florensa L, Gonzalez-Vicent M, Pisano DG, Piris MA, Alvarez S, Cigudosa JC. Leukemia (2013). DOI: 10.1038/leu.2013.283
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.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 23-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Nuria Noriega
comunicacion@cnio.es
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO)
Acute dendritic leukaemia is a rare type of leukaemia, but one with the worst prognosisthe average patient survival rate is just 12-14 monthsthat is difficult to treat. Juan Cruz Cigudosa's team, from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre's (CNIO) Molecular Cytogenetics Group, has for the first time sequenced the exome the coding, or protein-generating, regions of the genome of dendritic cell leukaemia.
The analyses, published in Leukemia, the world's leading journal in onco- haematology, uncover new genetic pathways that could revolutionise treatment guidelines for these patients.
'EPIGENETIC' GENES ARE ALTERED IN MOST CASES
For the first time in human leukaemias, scientists have described mutations in four genes (IKZF3, HOXB9, UBE2G2 and ZEB2) that have important cellular functions, such as gene regulation and cellular differentiation.
"In addition to these genes, we have found that more than half of the cases harbour mutations in epigenetic genes at diagnosis those genes that introduce chemical modifications in the DNA something that had never been observed in this type of leukaemia", says Cigudosa. "Therapies
directed against these epigenetic genes already exist, so these patients could also benefit from them".
In summary, the genetic profile of acute dendritic cell leukaemia, currently treated as a lymphoid leukaemia, is similar to that of myeloid leukaemia. "These results suggests a change in the treatment guidelines for these patients, who were completely misplaced", says Juliane Menezes, the first author of the study.
According to Cigudosa, "this study is a clear example of the role of genomics in translational research being carried out by Spanish scientists, in general, and more specifically at CNIO".
To carry out this work, the authors analysed the exome of three patients diagnosed with dendritic cell leukaemia and validated the results using a panel of 38 genes and 25 additional patients (known as a targeted resequencing strategy), coming from 9 Spanish hospitals.
###
This research was conducted in collaboration with CNIO's Bioinformatics Core Unit, led by David Pisano, the Pathology Services at the Marques de Valdecilla Hospital in Santander, led by Miguel Angel Piris, as well as several Spanish Genetics and Haematology Services.
Acknowledgements: the study has been supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the Carlos III Health Institute, the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) and 'La Caixa' Foundation.
Reference article:
Exome sequencing reveals novel and recurrent mutations with clinical impact in blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm. Menezes J, Acquadro F, Wiseman M, Gómez-López G, Salgado RN, Talavera-Casañas JG, Buño I, Cervera JV, Montes-Moreno S, Hernández-Rivas JM, Ayala R, Calasanz MJ, Larrayoz MJ, Florensa L, Gonzalez-Vicent M, Pisano DG, Piris MA, Alvarez S, Cigudosa JC. Leukemia (2013). DOI: 10.1038/leu.2013.283
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.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 23-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Lyndsay Meyer
lmeyer@osa.org
202-416-1435
The Optical Society
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2013 -- Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer and cancer deaths among women worldwide. Routine screening can increase breast cancer survival by detecting the disease early and allowing doctors to address it at this critical stage. A team of researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands have developed a prototype of a new imaging tool that may one day help to detect breast cancer early, when it is most treatable.
If effective, the new device, called a photoacoustic mammoscope, would represent an entirely new way of imaging the breast and detecting cancer. Instead of X-rays, which are used in traditional mammography, the photoacoustic breast mammoscope uses a combination of infrared light and ultrasound to create a 3-D map of the breast. The researchers describe their device in a paper published today in The Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Biomedical Optics Express.
A 3-D Map of the Breast
In the new technique, infrared light is delivered in billionth-of-a-second pulses to tissue, where it is scattered and absorbed. The high absorption of blood increases the temperature of blood vessels slightly, and this causes them to undergo a slight but rapid expansion. While imperceptible to the patient, this expansion generates detectable ultrasound waves that are used to form a 3-D map of the breast vasculature. Since cancer tumors have more blood vessels than the surrounding tissue, they are distinguishable in this image.
Currently the resolution of the images is not as fine as what can be obtained with existing breast imaging techniques like X-ray mammography and MRI. In future versions, Srirang Manohar, an assistant professor at the University of Twente who led the research, Wenfeng Xia, a graduate student at the University of Twente who is the first author on the new paper, and their colleagues expect to improve the resolution as well as add the capability to image using several different wavelengths of light at once, which is expected to improve detectability.
The Twente researchers, who belong to the Biomedical Photonic Imaging group run by Professor Wiendelt Steenbergen, have tested their prototype in the laboratory using phantoms -- objects made of gels and other materials that mimic human tissue. Last year, in a small clinical trial they showed that an earlier version of the technology could successfully image breast cancer in women.
Manohar and his colleagues added that if the instrument were commercialized, it would likely cost less than MRI and X-ray mammography.
"We feel that the cost could be brought down to be not much more expensive than an ultrasound machine when it goes to industry," said Xia.
The next step, they say, will be to prepare for larger clinical trials. Several existing technologies are already widely used for breast cancer screening and diagnosis, including mammography, MRI, and ultrasound. Before becoming routinely used, the photoacoustic mammoscope would have to prove at least as effective as those other techniques in large, multicenter clinical trials.
"We are developing a clinical prototype that improves various aspects of the current version of the device," said Manohar. "The final prototype will be ready for first clinical testing next year."
###
Paper: "Design and evaluation of a laboratory prototype system for 3D photoacoustic full breast tomography," W. Xia et al., Biomedical Optics Express, Vol. 4, Issue 11, pp. 2555-2569 (2013). http://www.opticsinfobase.org/boe/abstract.cfm?uri=boe-4-11-2555
EDITOR'S NOTE: Images and video footage are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Lyndsay Meyer, lmeyer@osa.org.
About Biomedical Optics Express
About OSA
Founded in 1916, The Optical Society (OSA) is the leading professional society for scientists, engineers, students and business leaders who fuel discoveries, shape real-world applications and accelerate achievements in the science of light. Through world-renowned publications, meetings and membership programs, OSA provides quality research, inspired interactions and dedicated resources for its extensive global network of professionals in optics and photonics. For more information, visit http://www.osa.org.
Contact:
Lyndsay Meyer
The Optical Society
+1.202.416.1435
lmeyer@osa.org
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.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 23-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Lyndsay Meyer
lmeyer@osa.org
202-416-1435
The Optical Society
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2013 -- Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer and cancer deaths among women worldwide. Routine screening can increase breast cancer survival by detecting the disease early and allowing doctors to address it at this critical stage. A team of researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands have developed a prototype of a new imaging tool that may one day help to detect breast cancer early, when it is most treatable.
If effective, the new device, called a photoacoustic mammoscope, would represent an entirely new way of imaging the breast and detecting cancer. Instead of X-rays, which are used in traditional mammography, the photoacoustic breast mammoscope uses a combination of infrared light and ultrasound to create a 3-D map of the breast. The researchers describe their device in a paper published today in The Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Biomedical Optics Express.
A 3-D Map of the Breast
In the new technique, infrared light is delivered in billionth-of-a-second pulses to tissue, where it is scattered and absorbed. The high absorption of blood increases the temperature of blood vessels slightly, and this causes them to undergo a slight but rapid expansion. While imperceptible to the patient, this expansion generates detectable ultrasound waves that are used to form a 3-D map of the breast vasculature. Since cancer tumors have more blood vessels than the surrounding tissue, they are distinguishable in this image.
Currently the resolution of the images is not as fine as what can be obtained with existing breast imaging techniques like X-ray mammography and MRI. In future versions, Srirang Manohar, an assistant professor at the University of Twente who led the research, Wenfeng Xia, a graduate student at the University of Twente who is the first author on the new paper, and their colleagues expect to improve the resolution as well as add the capability to image using several different wavelengths of light at once, which is expected to improve detectability.
The Twente researchers, who belong to the Biomedical Photonic Imaging group run by Professor Wiendelt Steenbergen, have tested their prototype in the laboratory using phantoms -- objects made of gels and other materials that mimic human tissue. Last year, in a small clinical trial they showed that an earlier version of the technology could successfully image breast cancer in women.
Manohar and his colleagues added that if the instrument were commercialized, it would likely cost less than MRI and X-ray mammography.
"We feel that the cost could be brought down to be not much more expensive than an ultrasound machine when it goes to industry," said Xia.
The next step, they say, will be to prepare for larger clinical trials. Several existing technologies are already widely used for breast cancer screening and diagnosis, including mammography, MRI, and ultrasound. Before becoming routinely used, the photoacoustic mammoscope would have to prove at least as effective as those other techniques in large, multicenter clinical trials.
"We are developing a clinical prototype that improves various aspects of the current version of the device," said Manohar. "The final prototype will be ready for first clinical testing next year."
###
Paper: "Design and evaluation of a laboratory prototype system for 3D photoacoustic full breast tomography," W. Xia et al., Biomedical Optics Express, Vol. 4, Issue 11, pp. 2555-2569 (2013). http://www.opticsinfobase.org/boe/abstract.cfm?uri=boe-4-11-2555
EDITOR'S NOTE: Images and video footage are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Lyndsay Meyer, lmeyer@osa.org.
About Biomedical Optics Express
About OSA
Founded in 1916, The Optical Society (OSA) is the leading professional society for scientists, engineers, students and business leaders who fuel discoveries, shape real-world applications and accelerate achievements in the science of light. Through world-renowned publications, meetings and membership programs, OSA provides quality research, inspired interactions and dedicated resources for its extensive global network of professionals in optics and photonics. For more information, visit http://www.osa.org.
Contact:
Lyndsay Meyer
The Optical Society
+1.202.416.1435
lmeyer@osa.org
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.
