Chaos and courage as tornado wrecks elementary schools

Sue Ogrocki / AP

A child is pulled from the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., and passed along to rescuers on May 20.

By Matthew DeLuca and Miranda Leitsinger, NBC News

The massive tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., on Monday bore down hard on Plaza Towers Elementary School, where children sheltered inside from the roaring gusts, even as the building began to come apart around them.

The winds and flying debris from the mile-wide tornado claimed at least two dozen lives, the Oklahoma medical examiner said on Tuesday. Nine of those victims were children.?

The seven students who were killed at Plaza Towers, a single-story cinder block building that was leveled in the storm, were found dead in a pool of water, authorities said. Another student died at Briarwood Elementary, less than two miles away.

School officials had long planned for a tornado but seem not to have anticipated the powerful EF-5 category winds that topped 200-215 miles per hour, striking on the last week of the academic year

Richard Rowe / Reuters

Rescue workers look through the rubble at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., on May 21, after a devastating tornado ripped through the town on May 20.

Rhonda Crosswhite, who teaches sixth grade math at Plaza Towers, said the idea that school might be canceled because of a looming tornado had never even crossed her mind.

?We never think that?s an option,? Crosswhite told NBC News. ?We live in Oklahoma. Tornadoes happen all the time.?

Tracy Stephan told NBC News that she went to Plaza Towers to pick up her daughter, who suffers from autism and epilepsy, before the tornado hit. She found the doors locked, with the tornado bearing down on her.

?Eventually after five minutes after not getting through, I turned back home and I decided to put my faith and trust in God the school was going to be OK,? the mother of three told NBC News. She ran back to the school after the twister passed, and found her daughter outside in the parking lot with other kindergartners.

?I grabbed her and wrapped her in my arms,? said Stephan.

Levi Hendricks also sped toward the school as the tornado took aim, to pick up his eleven-year-old granddaughter Kimberly. The fourth-grader meanwhile was crouched with some of her classmates in a bathroom and then a hallway.

After the tornado passed through, they found a way out of the demolished school.

?She was already out,? when he arrived at the school, Hendricks said. ?They had an organized area where all the kids gathered at.?

Hendrick?s house, the back door of which once faced Plaza Towers? busy playground, was flattened by the tornado.

?The playground was always full of kids, always even after school the kids all went up there and hung out because the playground was such a nice place for them to play at,? Hendricks said. ?It was a nice family school. People who went there, now their kids are going there.?

Thirty-year-old working mother Janna Ketchie recounts the frantic journey into the heart of a tornado's destruction in order to find her three children, who were miles away at a daycare center.?NBC News' Ann Curry reports.

In the aftermath of the storm, the First Baptist Church of Moore, about three and half miles from Plaza Towers, became a gathering place for students from all of the city?s schools who had not found their guardians, church spokesman Joey Dean said.

?We got word from the schools that they were going to bus all the kids who had not been picked up by their parents yet,? Dean said. Teachers and counselors shuttled over the students in their personal cars.

?Most them went home, and those who didn?t have homes, they spent the night,? Dean said.

Children in the city?s schools regularly prepare for the possibility of a tornado, district employees said.

?We have tornado and fire drills periodically throughout the year,? said Noah Minton, a psychologist for the Moore Public School district.

?They have drills, they have proposals they follow, but something this large, you get out of the way,? Minton said.

U.S. Representative Tom Cole, a resident of Moore, said on MSNBC that Plaza Towers was one of the most structurally sound buildings in the area.

?Yesterday our administrators, staff, teachers and students put our crisis plan into action immediately,? Moore Public Schools Superintendent Susan Pierce said at a press conference on Tuesday. ?A tornado?s path is very unpredictable, but with little notice we implemented our tornado shelter procedures at every school site.?

City disaster plans and school documents show that officials had thought through what to do in the event of a tornado. They also suggest, however, that officials did not anticipate a disaster of this scale.

If a tornado came during the school day, teachers were instructed to have the students remain in their classrooms unless told to take them elsewhere, according to a cached version of the district?s 2012-2013 handbook for elementary school students and parents.

?Sudden tornadoes are a common occurrence in Oklahoma, especially in the spring of the year. Each of our schools has a tornado procedure, and the faculty and students have storm drills periodically,? the handbook reads. ?If severe weather is rapidly approaching at the time of dismissal, students will be held at the school until the danger is passed. If there is a tornado warning but no immediate danger, school will be dismissed on schedule.?

The city of Moore does not have any community tornado shelters, according to the city?s department of emergency management website. The guidelines posted online also refer to the May 3, 1999 tornado outbreak that killed 36 others and injured 295 more.

?If we are struck again, it will very likely be by a much less intense storm,? the website says. ?Sheltering in your residence ? assuming it is a reasonably well-constructed home ? is the best option.?

Hendricks said he thinks the instructions to shelter at Plaza Towers might have saved his granddaughter?s life.

?I do know there was a lot of lost lives, but I think there would have been a lot more if they let them out,? Hendricks said.

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FBI ID's Benghazi suspects _ but no arrests yet

FILE - This Sept. 13, 2012 file photo shows a cameraman filming one of U.S. consulate burnt out offices after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens on the night of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya. The U.S. has identified five men they believe might be behind the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and have enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists _ but not enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian criminal court, the process the Obama administration prefers, U.S. officials said. (AP photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)

FILE - This Sept. 13, 2012 file photo shows a cameraman filming one of U.S. consulate burnt out offices after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens on the night of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya. The U.S. has identified five men they believe might be behind the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and have enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists _ but not enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian criminal court, the process the Obama administration prefers, U.S. officials said. (AP photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. has identified five men who might be responsible for the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and has enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists, officials say. But there isn't enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian court as the Obama administration prefers.

The men remain at large while the FBI gathers evidence. But the investigation has been slowed by the reduced U.S. intelligence presence in the region since the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks, and by the limited ability to assist by Libya's post-revolutionary law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which are still in their infancy since the overthrow of dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

The decision not to seize the men militarily underscores the White House aim to move away from hunting terrorists as enemy combatants and holding them at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The preference is toward a process in which most are apprehended and tried by the countries where they are living or arrested by the U.S. with the host country's cooperation and tried in the U.S. criminal justice system. Using military force to detain the men might also harm fledgling relations with Libya and other post-Arab-Spring governments with whom the U.S. is trying to build partnerships to hunt al-Qaida as the organization expands throughout the region.

A senior administration official said the FBI has identified a number of individuals that it believes have information or may have been involved, and is considering options to bring those responsible to justice. But taking action in remote eastern Libya would be difficult. America's relationship with Libya would be weighed as part of those options, the official said, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the effort publicly.

The Libyan Embassy did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Waiting to prosecute suspects instead of grabbing them now could add to the political weight the Benghazi case already carries. The attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans weeks before President Barack Obama's re-election. Since then, Republicans in Congress have condemned the administration's handling of the situation, criticizing the level of embassy security, questioning the talking points provided to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for her public appearances to explain the attack and suggesting the White House tried to play down the incident to minimize its effect on the president's campaign.

The FBI released photos of three of the five suspects earlier this month, asking the public to provide more information on the men pictured. The images were captured by security cameras at the U.S. diplomatic post during the attack, but it took weeks for the FBI to see and study them. It took the agency three weeks to get to Libya because of security problems, so Libyan officials had to get the cameras and send them to U.S. officials in Tripoli, the capital.

The FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies identified the men through contacts in Libya and by monitoring their communications. They are thought to be members of Ansar al-Shariah, the Libyan militia group whose fighters were seen near the U.S. diplomatic facility prior to the violence.

Republican lawmakers continue to call for the Obama administration to provide more information about the attack. The White House released 99 pages of emails about the talking points drafted by the intelligence community that Rice used to describe the attack, initially suggesting they were part of a series of regional protests about an anti-Islamic film. In those emails, administration officials agreed to remove from the talking points all mentions of terror groups such as Ansar al-Shariah or al-Qaida, because the intelligence pointing to those groups' involvement was still unclear and because some officials didn't want to give Congress ammunition to criticize the administration.

U.S. officials say the FBI has proof that the five men were either at the scene of the first attack or somehow involved because of intercepts of at least one of them bragging about taking part. Some of the men have also been in contact with a network of well-known regional Jihadists, including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

The U.S. has decided that the evidence it has now would be enough for a military operation to seize the men for questioning, but not enough for a civilian arrest or a drone strike against them, the officials said. The U.S. has kept them under surveillance, mostly by electronic means. There was a worry that the men could get spooked and hide, but so far, not even the FBI's release of surveillance video stills has done that.

FBI investigators are hoping for more evidence, such as other video of the attack that might show the suspects in the act of setting the fires that ultimately killed the ambassador and his communications specialist, or firing the mortars hours later at the CIA base where the surviving diplomats took shelter ? or a Libyan witness willing to testify against the suspects in a U.S. courtroom.

But Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he is concerned the Obama administration is treating terrorism as criminal actions instead of acts of war that would elicit a much harsher response from the United States.

"The war on terror, I think, is a war and at times I get the feeling that the administration wants to treat it as a crime," McKeon said Tuesday.

Administration officials have indicated recently that the FBI is zeroing in.

"Regardless of what happened previously, we have made very, very, very substantial progress in that investigation," Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers last week.

That echoed comments made by Secretary of State John Kerry to lawmakers last month.

"They do have people ID'd," Kerry said of the FBI-led investigation. "They have made some progress. They have a number of suspects who are persons of interest that they are pursuing in this and building cases on."

But options for dealing with the men are few and difficult, U.S. officials said, describing high level strategy debates among White House, FBI and other counterterror officials. Those confidential discussions were described on condition of anonymity by four senior U.S. officials briefed on the investigation into the attack.

The U.S. could ask Libya to arrest the suspects, hoping that Americans would be given access to question them and that the Libyans gather enough evidence to hold the men under their own justice system. Another option is to ask the Libyans to extradite the men to the U.S., but that would require the U.S. to gather enough solid evidence linking the suspects to the crime to ask for such an action.

Asking other countries to detain suspects hasn't produced much thus far. In this case, the Egyptian government detained Egyptian Islamic Jihad member Muhammad Jamal Abu Ahmad for possible links to the attack, but it remains unclear if U.S. intelligence officers were ever allowed to question him.

Tunisia allowed the U.S. to question Tunisian suspect Ali Harzi, 28, who was arrested in Turkey last October because of suspected links to the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack, but a judge released him in January for lack of evidence.

Finally, the U.S. could send a military team to grab the men, and take them to an offsite location such as a U.S. naval ship ? the same way al-Qaida suspect Ahmed Warsame was seized by special operations personnel in 2011 in Somalia. He was then held and questioned for two months on a U.S. ship before being read his Miranda rights, transferred to the custody of the FBI and taken for trial in a New York court. Warsame pleaded guilty earlier this year and agreed to tell the FBI what he knew about terror threats and, if necessary, testify for the government.

The U.S. has made preparations for raids to grab the Benghazi suspects for interrogation in case the administration decides that's the best option, officials said. Such raids could be legally justified under the U.S. law passed just after the 9/11 terror attacks that authorizes the use of military force against al-Qaida, officials said. The reach of the law has been expanded to include groups working with al-Qaida.

The option most likely off the table would be taking suspects seized by the military to Guantanamo Bay, the facility in Cuba that Obama has said he wants to close.

"Just as the administration is trying to find the exit ramp for Guantanamo is not the time to be adding to it," said Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor for Guant?namo.

Beyond being politically uncomfortable, it's less effective, he said. "There've been a total of seven cases completed since 2001," with six of them landing in appeals court over issues with the legitimacy of the charges.

___

Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.

___

Follow Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier or http://bigstory.ap.org/tags/kimberly-dozier

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-21-US-Benghazi-Attack/id-d332baf3466f45b3a440dd52182ddded

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'Nanogardens' Sprout Up On The Surface Of A Penny

• Hide caption

  All of the flowers are crystals of silicon and minerals. Wim Noorduin sculpts the stems and blossoms by tweaking the environment in which the crystals grow.

  Courtesy of Wim Noorduin/Harvard University

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  Each rose sculpture is about half the thickness of a dollar bill. The only way to see the sculptures is with a microscope.

  Courtesy of Wim Noorduin/Harvard University

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  A field of nanoviolets sprouts up on a glass plate dipped into a solution of minerals and silicon.

  Courtesy of Wim Noorduin/Harvard University

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  The flowers grow in a stepwise process. First, Noorduin seeds crystals at the glass plate's surface to create the pink vase. The green stems nucleate inside the vases. And then a burst of carbon dioxides triggers the violets to blossom.

  Courtesy of Wim Noorduin/Harvard University

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  The images are falsely colored (because the electron microscope only photographs in black and white). But in this image, the colors represent the ones you'd actually see if the human eye could detect such small objects.

  Courtesy of Wim Noorduin/Harvard University

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  Noorduin creates ripples in the petals by sending pulses of carbon dioxide through the solution.

  Courtesy of Wim Noorduin/Harvard University

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  This flower would fit perfectly on Abraham Lincoln's jacket lapel on the backside of a penny.

  Courtesy of Wim Noorduin/Harvard University

April showers bring May flowers. But in this case, the blossoms are too small for even a bumblebee to see.

Engineers at Harvard University have figured out a way to make microscopic sculptures of roses, tulips and violets, each smaller than a strand of hair.

To get a sense of just how small these flower sculptures are, grab a penny and flip it on its back. Right in the middle of the Lincoln Memorial, you'll see a faint impression of Abraham Lincoln. These roses would make a perfect corsage for the president's jacket lapel.

Growing the gardens is similar to making crystals with a Magic Rock kit.

The flowers sprout up spontaneously when a glass plate is dipped into a beaker filled with silicon and minerals (specifically, barium chloride). Then Wim Noorduin at Harvard coaxes the salts to spiral and swirl into smooth, curvaceous shapes, like vases, leaves and petals.

Sense Of Scale: Nanoflower scupltures grow in front of the Lincoln Memorial imprinted on the back of a penny.

Courtesy of Wim Noorduin

Sense Of Scale: Nanoflower scupltures grow in front of the Lincoln Memorial imprinted on the back of a penny.

Courtesy of Wim Noorduin

He sculpts the stems and blossoms by slightly tweaking the environment in which the crystals grow. Lowering the temperature makes the petals thicker. Bursts of carbon dioxide send ripples through the leaves and blossoms.

The result is thousands of nanoviolets carpeting the surface of the glass plate.

"Every flower has a unique shape," Noorduin says. "It is very sensitive. If I just walk by the beaker in the lab, it changes the growth of these structures."

Noorduin has even seeded the crystals on the back of a penny, creating a garden of nanotulips on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

"It's a completely new world that you can make," he says. "And these flowers last ? they don't go bad. Even after years, you can still see them."

Noorduin can add color to the flowers by mixing dyes into the solutions. But he still has to colorize the images with Photoshop because the electron microscope only takes photos in black and white. He tries to match the colors in Photoshop with those in the actual flowers, though. "Like the rose structure with the green stem," he says, "these are the real colors of the sculpture."

He and his colleagues describe the microgardening technique in the current issue of the journal Science.

So far, they've focused only on making aesthetically pleasing structures, but Noorduin says the technique could be used to make any complex shape or architecture you want ? at an incredibly small size.

"It's a little bit similar to 3-D printing," he says. "Right now there are more options and varieties of shapes available in 3-D printing because it's 30 years old. We're just starting."

Eventually, he and the team at Harvard hope to use the method to create microelectronics, medical sensors and new materials for optics. "At this [size] scale, really interesting things happen with light," he says.

"When you look around you, nature can make very complex structures almost effortlessly," he adds. "Now we've demonstrated that we can make similar shapes by really doing very little, too."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2013/05/20/185509508/nanogardens-sprout-up-on-the-surface-of-a-penny?ft=1&f=1007

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With wary eye on the US, China courts India

NEW DELHI: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, smiling and effusive, was out to smooth ruffled feathers in India this week, promising to ease tensions and increase trade between Asia's fastest growing economies in his first trip overseas since taking office.

"China will make your dream come true," Li told a banquet hall filled with Chinese and Indian business executives in the financial capital of Mumbai as he wound up his visit on Tuesday.

China's overtures, which come amid worries in Beijing that it is being encircled by the United States and its allies, however met with a cool response.

India has been shaken by a recent border spat with China and is cautious about Beijing's friendship with rival Pakistan, where Li flies on Wednesday. New Delhi is also concerned about a ballooning trade deficit with China and a flood of cheap Chinese-made goods undercutting local manufacturers.

While India's relations with the United States are cordial and it is a major purchaser of its weapons, New Delhi has stayed away from a close strategic alliance.

"We would not like to see India become a tool of other major countries, especially the US, to counterbalance or check or contain China," said Hu Shisheng, an India specialist at CICIR, a Chinese government-backed think tank in Beijing.

"We want, through closer relations, to support New Delhi's policy that maintains equal distance. It's not realistic to expect India to be closer to one country than the other."

Li, who is travelling with executives from 41 Chinese companies, said the two rapidly-growing economies should free up bilateral trade and do more business together, instead of relying on others for development.

"With a long border and extensive common interests, China and India should not seek cooperation from afar while neglecting the partner close by," he said in a speech to businessmen and diplomats earlier on Tuesday.

Chatty and relaxed, Li repeatedly took Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by the hand and said a visit to India 27 years ago influenced him much as exposure to the sub-continent had affected Steve Jobs, the legendary co-founder of Apple.

Singh smiled back, but hardened India's stance on the long-standing territorial dispute between the two nations, saying broader ties could not blossom without peace on the border.

In the past, India has sought to separate the border dispute from wider relations. The difference this time was that Li's visit came just weeks after Chinese troops set up camp 19km (12 miles) inside territory India claims as its own.

The stand-off, which only ended on May 3 after three weeks of high-level negotiations, caused a public outcry in India. It overshadowed preparations for Li's trip and may explain the lack of significant bilateral agreements signed.

Severely tested

Despite the large commercial delegation, only one major business pact was signed, a $1 billion debt-for-fuel deal between China and Essar Energy PLC Lt, part of India's Essar group. Smaller pacts added a total $500 million in deals.

China and India disagree about large areas of their 4,000 km (2,500 mile) border and fought a brief war 50 years ago.

There has not been a shooting incident in decades but the feud prevents normal trade relations between neighbours, who account for 40 percent of the world's population.

Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian foreign secretary, the top official in the external affairs ministry, said he detected a new openness between the leaders of the two countries, and a willingness to tackle thorny issues. But he said the recent border confrontation had severely tested India's patience.

"They don't want us to get closer to the Americans. But ironically, that is exactly what they are doing by being extremely provocative at the border," Mansingh told Reuters, adding that China was also irking neighbours with maritime disputes with Japan and nations in Southeast Asia.

"By picking up a fight with every single neighbour after a period of friendship with all neighbours, the Chinese are, in fact, getting people together in a line up against them."

On the back of this week's visit, both Prime Minister Singh and Premier Li are due to visit each others respective rivals.

Next week, Singh is headed to Japan, which is engaged in an increasingly edgy dispute with China over a group of islets in the seas between them.

Li goes to Pakistan, where he is to sign agreements to develop the Chinese-managed Gwadar port.

India has often been nervous about Chinese agreements with its neighbours that are not strictly military but could be leveraged in a conflict.

Indians sometimes refer to these as a "string of pearls," which include China's ties with Pakistan, access to a Myanmar naval base, Chinese construction of a deepwater port in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, and its deepening ties with Nepal and the Maldives. Its force deployments in Tibet add to India's stress.

In Beijing, there are worries that the country is being encircled by the US strategic pivot to Asia and its allies like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and more recently, Vietnam. China has also been closely watching the improvement of US ties with Myanmar and India.

Trade gripes

After the border, India's biggest gripe with China is over trade. From almost nothing in the 1990s, bilateral trade hit a peak of $73 billion in 2011, heavily skewed in China's favour.

In comparison, China's annual trade with Japan is close to $300 billion. On Tuesday, Li pitched hard for closer economic cooperation and said Chinese companies could help India rapidly modernise its skeletal infrastructure.

"Our industrial structures are highly complementary, India has a competitive edge in IT, software and bio-medicine, while China is seeing rapid expansion of its machinery, textiles and emerging industries," Li said, and offered talks on a free trade agreement.

But India complains that China does not give its pharmaceutical and IT companies fair market access.

One Indian trade official, speaking to Reuters, burst out laughing at the free trade proposal, saying there was no way India would consider it until the trade imbalance was addressed.

That may take some time.

In a joint statement signed on Monday, China reiterated it would increase access for Indian products. The same was said on a visit by Premier Wen Jiabao in 2010 - but last financial year, India's bilateral trade deficit grew to $41 billion.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/With-wary-eye-on-the-US-China-courts-India/articleshow/20197427.cms

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Evaluating a new way to open clogged arteries

May 21, 2013 ? Over the past few decades, scientists have developed many devices that can reopen clogged arteries, including angioplasty balloons and metallic stents. While generally effective, each of these treatments has drawbacks, including the risk of side effects.

A new study from MIT analyzes the potential usefulness of a new treatment that combines the benefits of angioplasty balloons and drug-releasing stents, but may pose fewer risks. With this new approach, a balloon is inflated in the artery for only a brief period, during which it releases a drug that prevents cells from accumulating and clogging the arteries over time.

While approved for limited use in Europe, these drug-coated balloons are still in development in the United States and have not received FDA approval. The MIT study, which models the behavior of the balloons, should help scientists optimize their performance and aid regulators in evaluating their effectiveness and safety.

"Until now, people who evaluate such technology could not distinguish hype from promise," says Elazer Edelman, the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and senior author of the paper describing the study, which appeared online recently in the journal Circulation.

Lead author of the paper is Vijaya Kolachalama, a former MIT postdoc who is now a principal member of the technical staff at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.

Evolution of technology

Until the late 1970s, the standard treatment for patients with blocked arteries near the heart was bypass surgery. Doctors then turned to the much less invasive process of reopening arteries with angioplasty balloons. Angioplasty quickly became the standard treatment for narrowed arteries, but it is not always a long-term solution because the arteries can eventually collapse again.

To prevent that, scientists developed stents -- metal, cage-like structures that can hold an artery open indefinitely. However, these stents have problems of their own: When implanted, they provoke an immune response that can cause cells to accumulate near the stent and clog the artery again.

In 2003, the FDA approved the first drug-eluting stent for use in the United States, which releases drugs that prevent cells from clumping in the arteries. Drug-eluting stents are now the primary choice for treating blocked arteries, but they also have side effects: The drugs can cause blood to clot over time, which has led to death in some patients. Patients who receive these stents now need to take other medications, such as aspirin and Plavix, to counteract blood clotting.

Edelman's lab is investigating a possible alternative to the current treatments: drug-coated balloons. "We're trying to understand how and when this therapy could work and identify the conditions in which it may not," Kolachalama says. "It has its merits; it has some disadvantages."

Modeling drug release

The drug-coated balloons are delivered by a catheter and inflated at the narrowed artery for about 30 seconds, sometimes longer. During that time, the balloon coating, containing a drug such as Zotarolimus, is released from the balloon. The properties of the coating allow the drug to be absorbed in the body's tissues. Once the drug is released, the balloon is removed.

In their new study, Kolachalama, Edelman and colleagues set out to rigorously characterize the properties of the drug-coated balloons. After performing experiments in tissue grown in the lab and in pigs, they developed a computer model that explains the dynamics of drug release and distribution. They found that factors such as the size of the balloon, the duration of delivery time, and the composition of the drug coating all influence how long the drug stays at the injury site and how effectively it clears the arteries.

One significant finding is that when the drug is released, some of it sticks to the lining of the blood vessels. Over time, that drug is slowly released back into the tissue, which explains why the drug's effects last much longer than the initial 30-second release period.

"This is the first time we can explain the reasons why drug-coated balloons can work," Kolachalama says. "The study also offers areas where people can consider thinking about optimizing drug transfer and delivery."

In future studies, Edelman, Kolachalama and colleagues plan to further examine how blood flow affects drug delivery. They also plan to study a variety of different drugs and drug coating compositions, as well as how the balloons behave in different types of arteries.

The National Institutes of Health and Abbott Vascular funded the research.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/q4_1CBDKLMU/130521121513.htm

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Yahoo to acquire Tumblr for $1.1 billion cash

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - Manchester United's outgoing manager Alex Ferguson has criticised neighbours Manchester City for sacking Roberto Mancini. The Italian boss was sacked on Monday having failed to retain the Premier League title he won last season and after losing the FA Cup final to Wigan Athletic. Mancini took out a full-page advertisement in the Manchester Evening News on Saturday, thanking fans for their support during his time in charge. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/yahoos-board-approves-1-1-billion-tumblr-acquisition-103611211.html

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Insight into the dazzling impact of insulin in cells

Public release date: 21-May-2013
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Contact: Alison Heather
a.heather@garvan.org.au
61-292-958-128
Garvan Institute of Medical Research

Australian scientists have charted the path of insulin action in cells in precise detail like never before. This provides a comprehensive blueprint for understanding what goes wrong in diabetes.

The breakthrough study, conducted by Sean Humphrey and Professor David James from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, is now published in the early online edition of the prestigious journal Cell Metabolism.

First discovered in 1921, the insulin hormone plays a very important role in the body because it helps us lower blood sugar after a meal, by enabling the movement of sugar from the blood into cells. Until now, although scientists have understood the purpose of insulin at a broad level, they have struggled to understand exactly how it achieves its task.

The latest analytical devices called mass spectrometers now provide the tool that has been missing the means of looking into the vastly complex molecular maze that exists in every single cell in the human body.

These powerful devices have opened up a field known as 'proteomics', the study of proteins on a very large scale. Proteins represent the working parts of cells, using energy to perform all essential functions such as muscle contraction, heartbeat or even memory.

Each cell houses multiple copies of between 10,000 and 12,000 protein types, which communicate with each other using various methods, the most common of which is a process known as 'phosphorylation'. Phosphate molecules are deliberately added to proteins in order to convey information, or else change the protein's function.

Each of the protein types in a cell has up to 20 potential 'phosphorylation sites', regions to which a phosphate molecule can be added. This pushes the total number of possible cell states from one moment to the next into the billions.

The authors discovered 37,248 phosphorylation sites on 5,705 different proteins, 15% of which changed in response to insulin.

"Until this study, we did not really appreciate the scale and complexity of insulin regulation," said lab leader Professor David James.

"When insulin is released from the pancreas after we eat, it travels to cells and initiates a cascade of protein phosphorylation, literally millions of interactions, some instantaneous, some taking minutes or hours. The process is so precise and intricate, and at the same time so monumental in its scope, that it's truly astounding."

Sean Humphrey, who undertook the mass spectrometry work, discovered over 1,500 phosphorylation sites that respond to insulin, and described the process as "eye opening".

"When you consider that phosphorylation is only one type of signaling acetylation and methylation are other forms you begin to understand the kind of complexity that faces us," he said.

In addition to cataloguing the phosphoproteome of the fat cell, the authors discovered novel regulation of a protein called 'SIN1', key to our understanding of the chain of events that occurs during insulin signaling. They have also described the mechanisms by which SIN1 influences other influential proteins within the cell, in particular one known as Akt.

"Sean's study has shed new light on how one of the most important regulators in the cell a protein called Akt is itself regulated," said Professor James.

"Akt not only plays a role in diabetes, but also in cancer and other diseases, and the discovery of SIN1 phosphorylation gives us useful new insights into how Akt actually functions in a cell."

"These large scale approaches are providing us with new levels of understanding of human biology that we would never have anticipated. Without the mass spectrometer, we could not have discovered the importance of SIN1 phosphorylation in the overall insulin signaling process."

"It's an important lesson about the usefulness of this technology in allowing us to discover new things about the cell and how it regulates itself."

###

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

Public release date: 21-May-2013
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Contact: Alison Heather
a.heather@garvan.org.au
61-292-958-128
Garvan Institute of Medical Research

Australian scientists have charted the path of insulin action in cells in precise detail like never before. This provides a comprehensive blueprint for understanding what goes wrong in diabetes.

The breakthrough study, conducted by Sean Humphrey and Professor David James from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, is now published in the early online edition of the prestigious journal Cell Metabolism.

First discovered in 1921, the insulin hormone plays a very important role in the body because it helps us lower blood sugar after a meal, by enabling the movement of sugar from the blood into cells. Until now, although scientists have understood the purpose of insulin at a broad level, they have struggled to understand exactly how it achieves its task.

The latest analytical devices called mass spectrometers now provide the tool that has been missing the means of looking into the vastly complex molecular maze that exists in every single cell in the human body.

These powerful devices have opened up a field known as 'proteomics', the study of proteins on a very large scale. Proteins represent the working parts of cells, using energy to perform all essential functions such as muscle contraction, heartbeat or even memory.

Each cell houses multiple copies of between 10,000 and 12,000 protein types, which communicate with each other using various methods, the most common of which is a process known as 'phosphorylation'. Phosphate molecules are deliberately added to proteins in order to convey information, or else change the protein's function.

Each of the protein types in a cell has up to 20 potential 'phosphorylation sites', regions to which a phosphate molecule can be added. This pushes the total number of possible cell states from one moment to the next into the billions.

The authors discovered 37,248 phosphorylation sites on 5,705 different proteins, 15% of which changed in response to insulin.

"Until this study, we did not really appreciate the scale and complexity of insulin regulation," said lab leader Professor David James.

"When insulin is released from the pancreas after we eat, it travels to cells and initiates a cascade of protein phosphorylation, literally millions of interactions, some instantaneous, some taking minutes or hours. The process is so precise and intricate, and at the same time so monumental in its scope, that it's truly astounding."

Sean Humphrey, who undertook the mass spectrometry work, discovered over 1,500 phosphorylation sites that respond to insulin, and described the process as "eye opening".

"When you consider that phosphorylation is only one type of signaling acetylation and methylation are other forms you begin to understand the kind of complexity that faces us," he said.

In addition to cataloguing the phosphoproteome of the fat cell, the authors discovered novel regulation of a protein called 'SIN1', key to our understanding of the chain of events that occurs during insulin signaling. They have also described the mechanisms by which SIN1 influences other influential proteins within the cell, in particular one known as Akt.

"Sean's study has shed new light on how one of the most important regulators in the cell a protein called Akt is itself regulated," said Professor James.

"Akt not only plays a role in diabetes, but also in cancer and other diseases, and the discovery of SIN1 phosphorylation gives us useful new insights into how Akt actually functions in a cell."

"These large scale approaches are providing us with new levels of understanding of human biology that we would never have anticipated. Without the mass spectrometer, we could not have discovered the importance of SIN1 phosphorylation in the overall insulin signaling process."

"It's an important lesson about the usefulness of this technology in allowing us to discover new things about the cell and how it regulates itself."

###

---

[ | 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/2013-05/giom-iit052113.php

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91% Frances Ha

All Critics (44) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (4)

Occasionally inspired, frequently charming and always watchable.

Has the earnest, wonky charm of a homemade valentine.

It's a skimpy, overextended riff, but some of the seemingly tossed-off moments are lovely.

Frances Ha is sharply focused on a genuine life issue that doesn't get much play in movies: the challenges of platonic love and of the complicated passions of friendship.

While Gerwig's gentleness gives Baumbach's work a new warmth, his touch gives her a new maturity.

An American independent film (shot in luminous black and white by Sam Levy) that feels off the cuff but is in fact exactly made by a filmmaker in total control of his resources.

Greta Gerwig is delightful as an awkward non-dancer in this off-beat comedy

...like an early Andrew Bujalski movie with more articulate characters or Lena Dunham's 'Girls' without the ick factor.

Frances Ha is not the worst film of the year. That would be Snitch. However, it is the most obnoxious film so far.

This is a truly wonderful movie, recalling Woody Allen at his best.

Frances Ha is the work of an artist in love, and in Baumbach's case, it's not clear that love is his most constructive muse.

A great film that gets the spirit of New York exactly right:

No quotes approved yet for Frances Ha. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frances_ha_2013/

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Flickr's Massive Redesign: Full-Res Photos, a Terabyte of Free Storage

Sure, Yahoo just about killed Flickr, but today it's trying to restore its former glory. Just after the company this morning announced its $1.1 billion dollar acquisition of Tumblr, it showed off a completely redesigned version of Flickr with giant photos and more storage than you probably even need.

Here's what's up: Flickr's web interface is totally different?clean and simple with big, beautiful, full-resolution photos. The Flickr homepage? No more small thumbnails and a whole lot less white space. Now you'll see full-sized pictures. It's really quite lovely with a full-bleed photo at the top of your profile. Flickr's also getting gorgeous, full-screen slideshows, and when you upload and share your photos, you're not losing any pixels.

Search has been totally revamped, powered by Yahoo tech of course. Again, images are bigger, and it's much more immersive and easier to find what you're looking for. Here's the explore tab:

And here's the view of a single image:

On top of that, you're now getting a full terabyte of storage for free. That's apparently 70 times more than any other service offers you.

Additionally, Flickr released a totally new Android app (in addition to the iOS app it updated in March) that lets you access your Flickr pics from anywhere. The new Flickr is live now, so if you head over to the site, you'll see a much prettier, image-centric, modern look.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/yahoo-completely-redesigned-flickr-508948823

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Wyo. student who threatened to rape self on Facebook was convicted of assault

The 28-year-old University of Wyoming student who allegedly threatened herself with rape in a Facebook hoax in April was convicted of aggravated assault in 2005 after she brandished a gun at an employer who fired her.

Meg Lanker-Simons, now a newly-minted UW graduate, was charged with interference with a police investigation after she allegedly posted on an anonymous Facebook forum that she wanted to engage in angry sexual intercourse ? with someone named ?Meg Lanker Simons.?

The posting on UW Crushes read:

?I want to hatefuck Meg Lanker Simons so hard. That chick runs her liberal mouth all the time and doesn?t care who knows it. I think its so hot and makes me angry. One night with me and shes gonna be a good Republican bitch.?

It turns out that the April 24 incident isn?t the strident leftist?s first rodeo in Wyoming?s criminal system. As the Laramie Boomerang reports, Lanker-Simons had an aggravated assault conviction in 2005 as the result of a bizarre gun-brandishing incident.

After Lanker-Simons was fired from a radio station in the fall of 2005, she returned and pulled a Glock 22 .40 caliber handgun from her purse. She waved the semi-automatic pistol around. She pointed it at the man who sacked her. He testified that he was ?in fear for his life,? notes the Boomerang.

The radio station was evacuated. Police caught Lanker-Simons as she tried to flee the scene in her vehicle. They held her at gunpoint.

In July 2006, Lanker-Simons ? then known as Meghan Michelena ? was sentenced to six years of probation. Her term of probation was subject to a number of conditions. She had to undergo counseling, complete community service, pay fines and apologize to her victims. She was also prevented from owning any guns.

The alleged Facebook hoax brought national attention to the Cowboy State?s flagship college. Initially, the administration stood firmly behind Lanker-Simons. ?No student should have to deal with such threatening language,? said one sternly-worded official statement. A school official also denounced ?rape culture,? according to KOWB.

Concerned fellow feminists also threw a rally for Lanker-Simons ? complete with all manner of signs condemning rape threats ? before police concluded that Lanker-Simons herself was behind the threats.

This month, Lanker-Simons participated in the University of Wyoming?s commencement ceremonies despite the charges against her. She graduated with a bachelor?s degree in psychology.

Lanker-Simons is also a blogger and a local radio host.

In 2010, Lanker-Simons and Bill Ayers sued the University of Wyoming after school officials decided to cancel a speech by Ayers, a former Weather Underground radical and mentor to President Obama. Also in 2010, her husband, Andrew Simons, ran a failed Democratic campaign for Wyoming secretary of state.

According to the Boomerang, the interference charge is a misdemeanor punishable by a prison sentence up to a year and a fine up to $1,000.

Follow Eric on Twitter?and send education-related story tips to?erico@dailycaller.com.
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Wyo. student who threatened to rape self on Facebook was convicted of assault

'IT'S SCARY': Records show IRS officials independently targeted conservative training materials

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wyo-student-threatened-rape-self-facebook-convicted-assault-174802295.html

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Backed Or Whacked: Reading And Writing Through Crowdfunding

Editor?s note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and blogs at Techspressive. An ancient and once-sacred bond between author and audience, reading and writing have become but two more tasks along with a multitude of other things that we do on a host of digital devices -- watcing videos, listening to music, playing games, and really anything except using Facebook Home. Still, there are some for whom the intimate act of interface between pen and paper retains more magic than all the electrons powering all the devices in the world have not been able to recreate. For them, a trio of European crowdfunding projects have trotted out a range of products to improve both endpoints of analog document creation.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/-QW0Ov96wDw/

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Bradley keeps lead after 3 rounds at Nelson

IRVING, Texas (AP) ? Keegan Bradley still hasn't gotten things right on the 18th hole at the Byron Nelson Championship, even when finally going left.

The bogeys on the closing hole at TPC Four Seasons haven't cost him the lead yet.

Bradley overcame consecutive bogeys early and bogeyed No. 18 for the third round in a row Saturday to finish with a 2-under 68 that kept him in the lead.

"(Sunday) is the day. Right down the middle," Bradley said about that last hole. "I'm due!"

Bradley's 13-under 197 total gave him a one-stroke lead over Sang-Moon Bae, who had his third consecutive 66. Tom Gillis was two strokes back after a 67.

After going way right off the tee at No. 18 the first two rounds, Bradley smashed his drive Saturday down the left side toward the water. The ball stayed dry, but settled behind a large rock and forced him to punch back into the fairway. His approach settled on the front edge of the green and he almost saved par ? the ball rolled just over the lip of the cup.

"I thought I made the putt, which would have been exciting," he said. "But 5 on that hole from where I hit it off the tee is a pretty good score."

On Sunday, Bradley will be trying to win at TPC Four Seasons for the second time in three years. He could also become the Nelson's first wire-to-wire winner since Tom Watson led alone at the end of all four rounds in 1980.

"Should be easier than having to come from behind," he said. "I have felt comfortable out there, haven't felt nervous. I feel like I put the time in, I feel like this is where I should be when I play well is near the lead or in the lead."

Bradley got his first PGA Tour victory as a rookie at the Nelson two years ago. He followed that by winning the PGA Championship later that season and the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational in 2012. The nephew of LPGA great Pat Bradley came from behind on the final day for all of those wins.

After following his opening course-record 60 with a 69 on Friday, Bradley started the third round with a three-stroke lead. He stayed alone at top of the leaderboard throughout.

Scott Piercy's 66 matched Bae and three others for the best round on a breezy Texas day. Piercy was fourth at 10 under, two strokes ahead of Gary Woodland (68), Harris English (68), John Huh (69) and 2011 Masters champ Charl Schwartzel (69).

When 83 players made the cut of even par, there were threesomes instead of traditional twosomes for the third round. That put Bradley in the same group with Bae and Gillis, who started the round tied for second place.

A secondary cut trimmed the field to 72 players for the final round, when Bradley plays with Bae in the final group. Gillis is paired with Piercy.

"Keegan is playing pretty good, but you got to play 'em all, see how it shakes out," said Gillis, who missed the cuts in his previous five tournaments.

Gillis was the last player in the field with a bogey Saturday, when he three-putted from 20 feet at the 203-yard 17th. He got that stroke right back when he blasted out of a greenside bunker for an unexpected birdie at No. 18.

"Makes dinner taste better, that's for sure," Gillis said.

Bradley first got to 12 under with a 13-foot birdie at the 505-yard third hole and saved par at the next hole after driving into a fairway bunker.

His consecutive bogeys came when he two-putted for bogey after missing the green at the par-3 fifth and then drove into the rough at No. 6. But after a long wait to tee off at the 542-yard seventh hole, Bradley got to the green in two and two-putted from 14 feet for a birdie.

When Bradley's drive at No. 11 settled just a few inches above the top edge of a bunker, it looked like he might have some trouble. But he hit his approach shot onto the green, 34 feet from the cup, and sank the birdie putt to get to 13 under. He blasted within 12 feet from a greenside bunker at the par-5 16th hole for birdie.

Bae, the 26-year-old South Korean who has 11 international victories but none on the PGA Tour, was quickly within a stroke of the lead after birdies on the first two holes. He made a 9-footer on the first and curled in a 32-foot birdie putt at the 223-yard second hole.

A 12-footer for birdie at the eighth hole got Bae to 10 under, again only a stroke back. But Bradley made a 14-foot birdie putt to close out the front nine and made the turn with a two-stroke lead over Bae and Gillis, who also made a birdie from 14 feet at the ninth hole to get to 10 under.

"Only play just my game," Bae said when asked how difficult it will be trying to overtake Bradley. "Nobody knows."

Notes: English twice had three birdies in a row, including approaches of 5-6 feet on holes 11-13 to get to 10 under right after missing a 3-foot par putt at No. 10. ... Huh, the 2012 PGA Tour rookie of the year, had an eagle 2 at the 14th hole when he holed a shot from 162 yards. ... Two-time major champion Angel Cabrera missed the green at the par-3 fifth hole, but chipped in from 27 feet for his second consecutive birdie to make up for the double-bogey 6 at No. 3. He finished with 11 consecutive pars in a 70 that left him seven strokes off the lead.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bradley-keeps-lead-3-rounds-nelson-220537986.html

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FBI searches apartment in ricin letter case

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) ? Authorities in hazardous materials suits are searching an apartment in downtown Spokane, Wash., as they investigate the recent discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin.

FBI agents, Spokane police officers and U.S. Postal Inspection Service officials descended on the apartment Saturday morning.

No arrests have been made. An FBI spokesman has not said whether agents are questioning anyone in connection with the case.

Authorities have not released a motive for why the letters were mailed this week.

Despite the hazmat suits, officials say apartment residents are not at risk, and people were seen coming in and out of the building.

Ricin is a highly toxic substance. Tiny amounts can be deadly if inhaled or ingested.

There have been no reports of illness connected to the letters.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies are executing a search warrant Saturday in the case of two letters containing the deadly poison ricin that were intercepted this week at a post office in Washington state.

Police say the investigation has focused on a neighborhood near downtown Spokane.

The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Spokane police are involved, but further details were not immediately available.

Ricin is a highly toxic substance made from castor beans. As little as 500 micrograms, the size of the head of a pin, can kill an adult if inhaled or ingested.

Two letters containing the substance were intercepted at the downtown Spokane post office Tuesday. There have been no reports of illness connected to the letters.

"The crude form of the ricin suggests that it does not present a health risk to U.S. Postal Service personnel or to others who may have come in contact with the letter," the agency said in a news release Thursday.

The Postal Service said it has received no other reports of similar letters. However, the agency did investigate a suspicious package sent to a federal judge in Spokane this week and found there was no hazard.

The Spokane investigation comes a month after letters containing ricin were addressed to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge. A Mississippi man has been arrested in that case.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-searches-apartment-ricin-letter-case-191809079.html

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Fiery 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Scene Hurt The Most: Ouch!

One stunt nearly cost Zachary Quinto his skin, he told 'MTV First.'
By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Zachary Quinto in "Star Trek Into Darkness"
Photo: Paramount Pictures

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707603/star-trek-into-darkness-zachary-quinto.jhtml

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Uber Prepares For Another Fight With DC Regulators

Just about six months ago, Uber won a big battle with D.C. regulators to have its on-demand car service approved for operation within the nation's capital. But new regulations from the D.C. Taxi Commission could severely hamper the company's ability to offer low-cost services in the nation's capital.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/w7USEGUbhWs/

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Pacers' Hill cleared to play Game 6 vs. Knicks

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Indiana Pacers guard George Hill has been cleared to play Saturday night against the New York Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Hill missed Game 5 on Thursday night in New York because of a concussion.

The Pacers released a statement about 1? hours before the scheduled tipoff saying Hill passed the NBA's return protocol as part of the league's concussion policy.

The Pacers said Hill remained symptom-free after each step, including workouts and the shootaround Saturday. He was injured in the first quarter of Game 4.

The Pacers lead the best-of-seven series 3-2.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pacers-hill-cleared-play-game-6-vs-knicks-225259036.html

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Doctor who promised cancer cure faces sentencing

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? At the age of three, Brianica Kirsch was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Her parents, desperate to find alternative measures for their daughter who had undergone surgeries and chemotherapy, turned to Dr. Christine Daniel, who offered an herbal supplement with a success rate she claimed was between 60 and 80 percent.

Brianica's parents spent thousands of dollars on the herbal product and their daughter spent much of her time in those last few months before she died in the summer of 2002 being shuttled from her Ventura County home to Daniel's clinic in the San Fernando Valley.

Daniel, 58, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in a Los Angeles courtroom where federal prosecutors are asking she be sentenced to 27 years in prison for crimes they deem cruel, despicable and heinous. Daniel's lawyer is seeking a nearly six-year prison term.

Daniel was convicted in September 2011 of 11 counts, including wire fraud, tax evasion and witness tampering. Authorities said Daniel used her position both as a doctor at the Sonrise Wellness Center and a Pentecostal minister to entice people from across the nation to take her herbal product to remedy cancer, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.

Federal prosecutors argue that Daniel preyed upon people in their most vulnerable state and gave them false hope.

Daniel "repeatedly demonstrated a merciless and callous indifference to the suffering of her patients and their family members," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns wrote in court documents. "It is unlikely that our federal criminal justice system will see the like of defendant Christine Daniel again."

Some of her patients, relying on her product, died from complications of cancer within three to six months after taking the supplement. In one case, prosecutors contend a 22-year-old woman who had highly curable form of neck lymphoma died because she relied on Daniel's recommendation to avoid radiation or chemotherapy treatments.

For Brianica's parents, they implored Daniel for the stark truth given their daughter's condition.

"I remember telling Dr. Daniel before we started, 'If this isn't real, if you can't really help my daughter, please don't take away our last time with her,'" LuAnn Kirsch testified at Daniel's trial. "'Just let us go home if you can't really help.' Because you don't get that time back."

For other patients, they endured additional pain and suffering because they took the herbal tonic provided by Daniel. At trial, experts called by federal prosecutors said chemical tests of the product showed it contained beef extract flavoring and a sunscreen preservative among other ingredients.

"I live with the guilt that I should have seen that none of what she was going through was helping her, but instead was hurting her," Debra Harris wrote in a letter submitted to the court about her sister and Daniel's one-time patient Barbara Davis who later died. Harris said Daniel's patients were not only convinced by the physician that they could be cured but so were family members who "wanted to believe it just as bad."

Paula Middlebrooks also put her faith in Daniel, who billed her nearly $60,000 over a five-month period to help treat her terminal breast cancer. Eventually, Daniel pronounced Middlebrooks was free of cancer and threw her a party. But in reality the cancer was spreading and Middlebrooks died shortly after she returned to her home in Georgia.

"This heinous conduct was a clear effort to rid herself of a problematic patient, to lull other cancer fraud patients and to create yet another miraculous 'marketing' example of the success of her herbal cancer treatment that would be sure to spread throughout the evangelical Christian community," prosecutor Johns wrote in court documents.

In all, authorities believe Daniel siphoned about $1.1 million from dozens of families between 2001 and 2004.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/doctor-promised-cancer-cure-faces-sentencing-083518213.html

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