Older, cheaper vacuum cleaners release more bacteria and dust

Public release date: 4-Jan-2012
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Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society

Some vacuum cleaners those basic tools for maintaining a clean indoor environment in homes and offices actually contribute to indoor air pollution by releasing into the air bacteria and dust that can spread infections and trigger allergies, researchers report in a new study. It appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Lidia Morawska and colleagues explain that previous studies showed that vacuum cleaners can increase levels of very small dust particles and bacteria in indoor spaces, where people spend about 90 percent of their time. In an effort to provide more information about emission rates of bacteria and small dust particles, the scientists tested 21 vacuum cleaners sold in Australia. The vacuums came from 11 manufacturers, included those marketed for household and commercial use, ranged in age from six months to 22 years and cost from less than $100 to almost $800. They looked at the effects that age, brand and other factors had on the amount of small particles and bacteria released into air.

All of the vacuums released some fine dust and bacteria into the air. Surprisingly, vacuums with so-called High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters in some cases released only slightly lower levels of dust and bacteria. Newer and more expensive vacuum cleaners were generally less polluting than older or less expensive models.

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The American Chemical Society is a non-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.

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Public release date: 4-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society

Some vacuum cleaners those basic tools for maintaining a clean indoor environment in homes and offices actually contribute to indoor air pollution by releasing into the air bacteria and dust that can spread infections and trigger allergies, researchers report in a new study. It appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Lidia Morawska and colleagues explain that previous studies showed that vacuum cleaners can increase levels of very small dust particles and bacteria in indoor spaces, where people spend about 90 percent of their time. In an effort to provide more information about emission rates of bacteria and small dust particles, the scientists tested 21 vacuum cleaners sold in Australia. The vacuums came from 11 manufacturers, included those marketed for household and commercial use, ranged in age from six months to 22 years and cost from less than $100 to almost $800. They looked at the effects that age, brand and other factors had on the amount of small particles and bacteria released into air.

All of the vacuums released some fine dust and bacteria into the air. Surprisingly, vacuums with so-called High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters in some cases released only slightly lower levels of dust and bacteria. Newer and more expensive vacuum cleaners were generally less polluting than older or less expensive models.

###

The American Chemical Society is a non-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.

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[ | E-mail | Share ]

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/acs-ocv010412.php

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London Olympics organizers sell every synchronized swimming seat -- twice

By NewsCore

January 04, 2012

LONDON ? In a major oops, London Olympics organizers have sold double the number of existing tickets to the synchronized swimming competition next summer. That's the bad news.

The good news is that the people asked to return their tickets will instead receive seats at some of the Olympics' most sought-after events, including track and diving, The (London) Times reported Wednesday.

The blunder came to light when the London Olympic Organizing Committee completed its seating configurations for all 34 competition venues and realized it had sold 20,000 seats for four sessions in the aquatics center while only 10,000 actually existed, The Times said.

Letters went out to the synchronized swimming ticketholders last month to inform them of the mix-up and offer them the chance to exchange their non-existent seats for events many Olympics-goers would consider more desirable.

The new seats were expected to come from a batch of 1.3 million held back by organizers until the final configurations of venues were established.

The London Olympics will be held July 27-August 12.

Read more: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/olympics/article3276289.ece

Reader Reaction We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment. New comments are only accepted for two weeks from the date of publication.

Source: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120104/NEWS90/120109878/-1/rss01

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Velocity Micro Shows Its New Tablet And Pico Projector Before CES

While many big companies are putting on big press conferences next week at CES, many smaller ones are getting their new gadgets out there early so people will want to drop by their booth. Velocity Micro just dropped a few new things, and we'll be sure to swing by their corner of the show if we're in the area. They've got a pair of budget tablets that won't really blow anyone away, but their new Shine pico projector looks really nice.

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

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Silkworms hacked to spin spider-like silk

Getty Images

Researchers have engineered silkworms to produce silk with the strength and elasticity of spider silk. The breakthrough avoids the task of spider farming.

By John Roach

Researchers have hacked the silkworm genome to spin fibers containing spider-silk proteins, a breakthrough that could lead to a long-sought biomaterial for a range of applications such as sutures, artificial ligaments and even bulletproof vests.

To prove the engineered silkworms were actually producing the synthetic silk, the researchers tagged some with green fluorescent protein, creating green-glowing silk.

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As spooky as this may seem, it is a big step on a path to manufacturing silk with spider-silk-like qualities without having to venture into the even scarier proposition of spider farming.

Indeed, spider farming isn't even a viable option given?spiders' penchant for?"territorialism and cannibalism," note the researchers in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The team, led by Donald Jarvis at the University of Wyoming, isn't the first to incorporate spider silk proteins into silkworms, but is the first to report stable integration of spider proteins in the composite silk fibers.

"On average, the composite fibers produced by our transgenic silkworm lines were significantly tougher than those produced by parental animals and as tough as native dragline spider silk fiber," the team concludes.

The caveat is that "very few of the transgenic animals produced anything nearly so tough. And there was little consistency among the different transgenic lines," John Timmer notes in Ars Technica.

Improved results could come with further transgenic constructs or knocking out some of the silkworm's native genes, he says, but adds improving the inconsistent quality of the silk is "a tough hurdle to clear."

More stories on silk:

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John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

A five-thousand-year-old material gets new life and super strength thanks to new technology. From the 103rd story of the Willis Tower in Chicago to Apple's future headquarters to a Corning research lab, we see how tough glass can get while maintaining its timeless beauty.

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Source: http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/04/9953057-silkworms-hacked-to-spin-spider-like-silk

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Face/Off: iPhone app for making a new version of yourself or anyone else

[prMac.com] Cairo, Egypt - Imagine Interactive today is proud to announce the release of its first photo app named "Face/Off". The main idea behind the application is about taking your face off your picture and putting it on a template. Templates are categorized in 6 different categories including Men, Women, Kids, Movies, Muscles and Military.

Face/Off is an amazing app for having lots of fun with your friends and family. With Face/Off you can make yourself a movie star, a sport player, a monk, an old man, a cute girl, an attractive woman, or anything you want to be. You can start making a new you using your camera or a picture from your photo roll. Face/Off has a very functional High Resolution user interface that supports iPhone 4 retina display.

After taking or selecting your picture, you can adjust its size, rotation, colors (by using a built-in color correction utility), brightness and even apply pre-packaged filters like polaroidish, greyscale, sharpen and sepia to give more realistic look for your pictures. When buying the full version of the app, you can save and share you creations via email, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr or just copy it to paste it anywhere. Purchasing the full version will also remove the ads too.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 4.0 or later
* 207 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Face/Off 1.0 is free with In-App Purchase to enable saving and sharing your creations. It is available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Photo & Video category.

Imagine Interactive has been founded by a group of Egyptian youth in Jan. 2011. We really believe that the future is for mobility and are here to make our imprint in this world. Copyright (C) 2011-2012 Imagine Interactive. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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Source: http://prmac.com/release-id-36591.htm

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Automakers see slower U.S. sales growth in 2012 (Reuters)

DETROIT (Reuters) ? Automakers forecast slower U.S. sales growth in 2012, citing weak employment and economic uncertainty, even after closing December on a strong note.

The industry is headed for full-year 2011 sales of about 12.8 million vehicles, 10 percent higher than 2010. U.S. auto sales have been a relative bright spot, with many cash-strapped consumers forced to purchase cars and trucks to replace vehicles that have been on the road for a decade or longer.

U.S. December sales at Chrysler and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) rose 37 percent and 36 percent, respectively, while Ford Motor Co (F.N) and General Motors Co (GM.N) posted gains of 10 percent and almost 5 percent.

Outside the luxury segment, the gains came without the boost from cash-back offers and other incentives the industry has sometimes relied upon heavily in the past.

At the lower end of forecasts for 2012, the growth rate would be half of last year's rate, leaving the industry far short of the nearly 17 million vehicle sales it averaged in a 10-year period through 2007.

U.S. new-vehicle sales are an early indicator each month of consumer spending, and analysts said December results were boosted by lower interest rates and a greater selection of vehicles on dealer lots.

Analysts said U.S. automakers have slashed enough jobs and closed plants to make money even at the bottom of the industry's bust cycle, but executives remain conservative.

"We're still in a recession-like industry," GM U.S. sales chief Don Johnson told analysts on a conference call after offering the automaker's growth forecast for 2012.

GM and VW expect total U.S. industry car sales in 2012 in the range of 13.5 million to 14 million vehicles, which implies growth of between 5 and 9 percent. Ford sees a range of 13.2 million to 14.2 million, excluding medium and heavy-duty trucks.

"The momentum coming out of the fourth quarter gives us confidence that the low end of that forecast is less likely," Ford economist Ellen Hughes-Cromwick said on a conference call.

Industry research firm TrueCar.com expects 2012 U.S. auto sales to reach 13.8 million vehicles.

While some forecast 2012 industry sales growth in the range of 5 percent to 9 percent, Guggenheim Securities analyst Matthew Stover expects growth closer to 4 percent.

"You still have anemic income growth," he said. "With relatively weak employment trends, sluggish real-income growth and consumer confidence that is improving but not strong by any stretch of the imagination, it doesn't feel to me like a traditional cyclical recovery."

However, U.S. auto sales remain a relative bright spot even at lower growth rates in a country where consumer spending is expected to rise less than 2 percent in 2012 according to the December Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

UNCERTAINTIES

Jonathan Browning, who heads VW's U.S. operations, said the automaker chose to give a forecast range for 2012 sales because of uncertainties including the U.S. presidential election and the debt crisis in Europe.

"It just reflects the macroeconomic volatility we see around the world," Browning said of VW's forecast. "It's wise to have some flexibility in your plan."

Industry executives have repeatedly said pent-up demand would boost U.S. growth in 2012 because the average car on the road is 11 years old. Ford estimated that about 50 million vehicles, or one of every five on the road, is now 11 to 15 years old.

"If you look at the overall conditions that typically fuel car buying, I see this as more a glass half full," TrueCar analyst Jesse Toprak said of the outlook for 2012.

Automakers appear to be more disciplined about the types of sales deals they offer consumers. Incentives fell about 3 percent in December and are expected to remain flat or even fall in 2012, according to TrueCar.

The picture in other markets is mixed. Sales in Western Europe are expected to reflect that region's economic hard times, but in Brazil auto sales are seen rising 4.5 percent this year, compared with a 2.9 percent increase in 2011.

In the United States, Chrysler and South Korea's Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) gained market share last year at the expense of Japan's Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T), both of which suffered from fewer cars to sell due to the Japan earthquake and Thai floods.

In December, GM's increase was due to strong demand in its Chevrolet brand, where sales rose almost 9 percent. Sales of the Cruze small car jumped 54 percent, while the Sonic subcompact increased 42 percent compared with its predecessor car, the Aveo.

Ford's U.S. sales, which came in above expectations, were helped by its best month for retail sales -- as opposed to fleet sales -- since 2005.

The gain at Chrysler, which is controlled by Fiat (FIA.MI), was due to a refreshed lineup of cars and trucks. For the year, sales at Chrysler finished up 26 percent, and the automaker said it gained 1.3 percentage points of market share.

Hyundai sales rose 13 percent, while Toyota performed better than expected, coming in essentially flat compared with December 2010 instead of the decline analysts had expected. Nissan Motor Co Ltd's (7201.T) sales rose 7.7 percent, and Honda Motor Co Ltd sales fell almost 19 percent.

GM shares were up 0.4 percent at $21.14 on Wednesday afternoon, while Ford shares were up 2.5 percent at $11.41.

(Additional reporting by Kevin Krolicki in Detroit; editing by John Wallace, Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120104/bs_nm/us_usautosales

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In Iowa, opposite candidates win in opposite ways (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? In many ways distinctly different, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney took near opposite paths to twin victories in Iowa's presidential caucuses.

The little-known, cash-strapped Santorum broke through as the leading conservative contender by cutting a painstaking path through every Iowa county. Romney, the GOP's deep-pocketed national front-runner, wanted to avoid being seen as underperforming and captured the state's more urban areas with little effort.

Both of their strategies went almost perfectly according to plan.

Santorum, a fierce abortion-rights opponent, caught fire with undecided social conservatives in the campaign's final two weeks, while Romney won over undecided Republicans who were concerned about finding a candidate to beat Democratic President Barack Obama.

Their near-even finish at about 25 percent each, punctuated by libertarian-leaning Ron Paul's close third-place showing, illustrates the sharp divide in the GOP going forward and the work ahead for the candidates hoping to establish a winning coalition.

After a long night, Romney won the caucuses ? by eight votes. But Santorum was hardly a loser, coming as far as he did in such a short time.

"You have one, deep within the right, and a scrapper, who did it the old-school, shoe-leather way," said John Stineman, an Iowa Republican strategist who ran Steve Forbes' 2000 Iowa caucus campaign. "And you have the candidate who is the national front-runner, who put together a strategy for how they compete and manage expectations."

Santorum carried vast tracts of Iowa's rural areas and its conservative northwest, having methodically campaigned in each of Iowa's 99 counties. For months, he persisted in meeting county party leaders a handful at a time, in 381 local meetings.

Romney carried many of Iowa's most populous counties, including a number of those he won four years ago, spending less than one-fifth the time and money he did during his 2008 campaign.

While Santorum needed to establish himself in a field of far better-known rivals, Romney needed to survive without underperforming in a state where he was viewed as the most electable, but where the state's influential social conservatives had doubts about his Mormon faith and changed positions on social issues.

Both had a lot to prove.

Romney, who got 24 percent of the vote in a disappointing second-place finish four years ago, needed to do well, while acknowledging that his support was capped by his spotty background with strict conservatives.

Santorum needed to show a more traditional approach could still succeed.

Both benefited from a lot of time in Iowa. For Romney, though, that time was spent in 2007.

Santorum started in September 2009, making his first Iowa appearance at a suburban Des Moines church to speak to an abortion opposition group training program.

"You, by standing up and not compromising, ... have taken the first step in taking this country back," Santorum told supporters at a rally back then in Johnston.

It was a sign of things to come. Santorum would go on to headline multi-candidate forums around the state, often winding up as the last speaker and holding the audience rapt with stories of his Senate fights over abortion legislation or his disabled daughter's struggles.

While no candidate put together the coalition of evangelical voters former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee did in winning four years ago, Santorum surged late with this group, picking up endorsements from influential pastors.

He picked up Sioux City talk radio host Sam Clovis, who may have contributed to Santorum's victory in that critical northwest Iowa county. Santorum also won the endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats, a former candidate for governor who led the campaign to oust three state Supreme Court judges who backed a decision to allow gay marriage in 2010.

The economy and the federal budget deficit were top issues for caucus attendees, according to entrance polls. However, the state's evangelical voters and strong conservatives tilted toward Santorum, the polls showed.

Although Santorum collected big pieces of the splintered social conservative coalition in the closing days of the campaign, he also benefited from the backing of Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, who was elected in 2010 and is popular with the tea party.

Santorum also had the early support of Nick Ryan, a former congressional chief of staff and campaign operative, who started a super PAC for Santorum and was the first to advertise on his behalf ? although not until December.

Santorum has a tougher hill ahead in New Hampshire than Romney, who leads there in the polls, has vastly more money and has a more natural home with the state's economic conservatives than Santorum, more identified as a social conservative.

Although Santorum has been to New Hampshire 30 times, he probably won't be able to build the same kind of grassroots network he achieved in Iowa before the primary is held on Jan. 10.

In Iowa, Romney avoided disappointing. In his speech in Des Moines late Tuesday he pointed out how much leaner his campaign was in 2012 than in 2008.

Five staff, instead of 52. Less than $2 million spent, compared with $10 million four years ago.

He spent most of 2011 playing down how well he would need to do in Iowa. In 2008, after spending more than 100 days and $10 million in the state, he finished a disappointing second.

"It's great that in the heartland, a campaign begins," Romney said before he was declared the winner, vowing "to make sure that we make sure we restore the heart and soul of the entire nation."

The outcome raises the bar for Romney in New Hampshire. His campaign has prepared for that challenge, long saying they need to win in order to continue to the GOP nomination.

Unlike Iowa, where Romney's support was steady without dominating, he has maintained a strong lead in New Hampshire for months.

His Iowa strategy was to project himself as a national candidate and emerge ahead of those viewed as potential national rivals, such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Although he focused more on Obama than any of his rivals, Romney did sponsor automated telephone calls attacking Perry's immigration positions. He later went after Gingrich on immigration and his temperament.

But Romney got a lot of help ? almost $3 million in advertising ? from a super PAC friendly to his campaign and run by former campaign aides.

Most of the ads fiercely attacked Gingrich, and his standing tumbled quickly. That gave Santorum an opening to rise and challenge Romney.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120104/ap_on_el_pr/us_iowa_how_they_did_it

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