Researcher finds elderly lose ability to distinguish between odors

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Scientists studying how the sense of smell changes as people age, found that olfactory sensory neurons in those 60 and over showed an unexpected response to odor that made it more difficult to distinguish specific smells, putting them at greater risk from dangerous chemicals and poor nutrition.

"We found clear changes in olfactory sensory neuron responses to odors for those 60 and up," said Professor Diego Restrepo, Ph.D., director of the Center for NeuroScience at the University of Colorado School of Medicine who led the researchers. "When we presented two different odors to the olfactory sensory neurons of younger people they responded to one or the other. The sensory neurons from the elderly responded to both. This would make it harder for the elderly to differentiate between them."

According to the study published in the latest issue of Neurobiology of Aging, those losing their sense of smell are at a higher risk of malnutrition since taste and smell are closely related, they may also be unable to detect spoiled food, leaking gas or toxic vapors.

Researchers looked at 440 subjects in two age groups ? those 45- years-old and younger and those 60 and over. Their olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) were tested for their responses to two distinct odors as well as subsets of those odors.

Restrepo wanted to determine if age-related differences in the function of OSNs might contribute to an impairment of the sense of smell. For this, in a collaboration with Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, researchers biopsied cells from both age groups.

"Whereas cells from younger donors were highly selective in the odorants to which they responded, cells from older donors were more likely to respond to multiple odor stimuli? suggesting a loss of specificity," the study said.

The scientists had expected to find less OSNs in older subjects and they thought the neurons would be less likely to respond to stimuli. In fact, they found as many neurons in the old as the young but those over 60 could not differentiate between two odors, they blended together.

The study suggests that changes in nose and the brain contribute to smell loss in the elderly, Restrepo said.

###

University of Colorado Denver: http://www.ucdenver.edu

Thanks to University of Colorado Denver for this article.

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UNESCO won't take on new projects this year (AP)

PARIS ? UNESCO won't take on any new projects until the end of the year, an official said Thursday, after the U.S. pulled its substantial contributions from the U.N. cultural agency to protest its acceptance of Palestine as a member.

Any projects already committed to will be carried out, the official said. No decisions have been made about how the organization will proceed next year.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The organization has launched an appeal for members and outside organizations to fill the gap. The tiny West African nation of Gabon stepped up, offering $2 million in the closing session of UNESCO's annual General Conference.

In a dramatic vote last month, Palestine won full membership at the agency, part of its push to win greater international recognition amid despair at the slow progress of peace negotiations with Israel.

After the measure passed, the room erupted in cheers, but reality quickly set in.

UNESCO, which protects historic heritage sites and works to improve literacy, access to schooling for girls and cultural understanding, is clearly scrambling after the loss of its biggest donor. Canada and Israel have also pulled funding, though they donate far less.

The U.S. typically provides one-fifth of the agency's annual budget ? some $80 million, three-quarters of which it hadn't yet handed over for this year and won't.

On Wednesday, Director-General Irina Bokova laid out a series of proposals for how the organization might make up for the loss.

While she said her appeal was urgent, she expressed confidence the difficulties would be overcome.

"I use the word 'difficulties' deliberately," she said. "This is not a crisis. This is a new situation."

Among the proposals was the launch of an emergency fund to solicit donations from foundations and individuals as well as member-states. A bright orange button calling on visitors to "Donate NOW!" was already on the organization's website Thursday.

Bokova said the agency would also tap its reserve fund ? $30 million set aside to weather such storms ? and has asked that fund to be increased to $65 million. Any contributions would be voluntary, she said, and would eventually be repaid.

She also asked members to pay their 2012 dues as early as possible.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111110/ap_on_re_eu/eu_unesco_palestinians

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Afghan murder case against U.S. Army sergeant nears end (Reuters)

TACOMA, Wash (Reuters) ? The lawyer for a U.S. Army sergeant charged with killing unarmed Afghan civilians and cutting fingers off corpses said his client failed to "look at the enemy as human" but his actions did not amount to murder.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented closing arguments on Wednesday in the court-martial of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, the accused ringleader behind the most egregious atrocities U.S. military personnel have been accused of in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

The judge, Lieutenant Colonel Kwasi Hawks, then gave instructions to the five-member jury panel and recessed proceedings for the day. The panel was expected to begin its deliberations on Thursday morning.

Gibbs, 26, from Billings, Montana, is charged with three counts of premeditated murder in the slayings of Afghan villagers last year that prosecutors said were disguised as legitimate combat casualties. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.

His right-hand man and now chief government witness, Jeremy Morlock, has pleaded guilty to murder for his role in all three killings and was sentenced to 24 years in prison under a deal with prosecutors to obtain his cooperation in the case.

Five soldiers in all from the infantry unit formerly called the 5th Stryker Brigade were accused of murder and seven other men were charged with lesser offenses in the investigation, which stemmed from a probe of drug abuse in their unit.

Gibbs maintains he is innocent of murder, insisting that two of the killings for which is charged were in self defense and that he played no role in the other. He denied planting weapons found near the bodies of two of the dead.

A photograph previously displayed as evidence in court showed Gibbs, Morlock and a third soldier posed grinning over the body of an Afghan man lying in a pool of blood. Morlock called it a "trophy photograph."

ALSO ACCUSED IN BEATING

Taking the stand in his own defense last Friday, Gibbs said he had "disassociated" himself from his actions while in combat, and he likened the removal of fingers from dead bodies to the taking of antlers from a deer.

Morlock and co-defendants portrayed Gibbs in testimony last week as a blood-thirsty, renegade squad leader who intimidated fellow soldiers and harbored a deep ethnic hatred of the very people U.S. troops were sent to protect from Taliban forces.

In addition to charges of murder, conspiracy and other offenses, Gibbs is accused of orchestrating and taking part in the severe beating of a fellow soldier who blew the whistle on rampant hashish use by the soldiers.

In his closing on Wednesday, defense lawyer Phillip Stackhouse cast Gibbs as a troubled soldier doing his best to bear up under tremendous stress in a hostile environment.

"He was in a bad place, and he didn't look at the enemy as human," Stackhouse said, adding that his conduct "crossed the line ... but it didn't cross the line to murder."

Referring to Gibbs' admission that he had taken fingers from dead Afghans, the defense attorney said, "He told you it was wrong. He is ashamed, and it was disgusting."

Stackhouse also said there was no physical evidence to convict his client of murder and that key witnesses, notably Morlock, had testified under plea deals in which they received more lenient sentences than they otherwise faced.

He also pointed to conflicting accounts by witnesses whose recollections, he said, were clouded by a "haze of hashish."

The prosecutor, Major Robert Stelle, began his closing arguments by referring to defense assertions that Gibbs was betrayed by his fellow soldiers.

"But with the flag of this nation emblazoned across his chest, Gibbs betrayed his country," Stelle told the panel.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111110/us_nm/us_soldiers_crimes

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Russian freighter delivers iPads to space station

An unmanned Russian cargo ship pulled up to the International Space Station on Wednesday carrying tons of fresh supplies for the orbiting lab's three-man crew in the first successful delivery mission since an August rocket crash.

The robotic Progress 45 spacecraft docked at the space station at 7:41 a.m. ET, ending a three-day trip that began with a smooth Sunday launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Russian-built Soyuz rocket. By coincidence, the cargo ship docked on the 11th anniversary of the arrival of the first space station crew, Expedition 1, in 2000. That mission began the station's unbroken streak of continued human presence in space.

The supplies aboard Progress 45 include 1,635 pounds (741 kilograms) of propellant for the space station's thrusters, 110 pounds (nearly 50 kilograms) of oxygen, 926 pounds (420 kilograms) of water and 3,108 pounds (1,409 kilograms) of other gear such as spare parts, maintenance equipment and experiment supplies.

The mission is Russia's first successful flight of a Progress cargo ship since an Aug. 24 Soyuz rocket crash that destroyed the Progress 44 cargo ship, due to a gas generator malfunction in the rocket's third stage. The Soyuz and its Progress 44 spaceship crashed in Siberia, Russian space officials said.

An investigation into the crash found that contamination in a gas generator fuel line or valve was the most likely cause of the crash. The malfunction was a rare failure in Russia's typically dependable Soyuz boosters. [Photos: Russia's Lost Cargo Ship Progress 44]

"After the accident during the launch of a Progress cargo vehicle a couple months ago, there's been some uncertainty in the program," NASA astronaut Mike Fossum said from the space station after Progress 45's successful launch. "This is a really huge step. This helps clear the rocket of any underlying problems, and so the next Soyuz crew has already gone to Baikonur."

The successful Progress 45 mission paves the way for a planned late-night Nov. 13 launch of three new space station crew members aboard a Soyuz rocket similar to that used to launch the robotic Progress spacecraft. Russia's Federal Space Agency had delayed the launch of the station's new crew to make sure its Soyuz rockets were safe for manned launches.

That delay in regular crew launches forced the space station to drop from its full six-person crew size down to a three-man staff. Space station managers also discussed the possibility of leaving the space station without a crew, if it became necessary.

The station's current crew ? Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa ?will return to Earth on Nov. 22 after handing control of the orbiting lab over to their replacements riding up on the Nov. 14 Soyuz launch.

Another three-person crew will launch in December, space station officials have said.

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"The December Soyuz mission will restore the space station crew size to six and continue normal crew rotations," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said in a statement Sunday after the Progress 45 launch.

The Progress 45 cargo ship parked at the Earth-facing Pirs docking port on the bottom of the space station. Another older cargo ship, called Progress 42, was previously docked there, but left the space station on Oct. 29 to make room for Progress 45, NASA officials said.

Among other items, the newly arrived Russian space freighter delivered the first iPads to fly in space.

Russian space officials packed the two Apple iPads on the Progress 45 cargo ship as entertainment tablets for the space station crew. They are the first tablets of their kind ever sent to the space station, space station officials said.

The iPads join iPod music players and iPhone 4 devices already on the space station. The iPhone 4 devices were delivered by NASA space shuttle astronauts earlier this year and are loaded with an app to help astronauts perform experiments.

The next spacecraft to launch toward the space station will be the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft, carrying NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov. Liftoff is set for 11:14 p.m. ET on Nov. 13.

You can follow Space.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter@tariqjmalik. Follow Space.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter@Spacedotcomand onFacebook.

? 2011 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45134162/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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Cain faces questions about campaign financing

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has asked a lawyer to investigate possible improper financial arrangements between a charity and his campaign.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday that Cain, who is also dealing with sexual harassment allegations from the 1990s, allowed a tax-exempt charity to illegally provide money to help Cain's campaign get started.

The charity, Prosperity USA, was founded by Cain's chief of staff, Mark Block, and his deputy chief of staff, Linda Hansen.

According to the Journal Sentinel report, the organization provided about $40,000 in goods and services to the campaign as it was getting started earlier this year. That's not allowed under campaign finance law.

Cain's campaign said it would investigate whether the payments were allowed.

"As with any suggestions of this type, we have asked outside counsel to investigate the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's suggestions and may comment, if appropriate, when that review is completed," Block said in an e-mailed statement.

In a Fox News interview, Cain himself said he had no idea there were any problems. "I didn't even know about the report until you brought it up on the show," he told Fox on Monday morning.

The finance troubles come as Cain is also admitting he was accused of sexual harassment when he led the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. In a series of appearances in Washington on Monday, Cain denied that he'd ever committed harassment, but acknowledged that he had been accused twice. As the day progressed, he added new details, acknowledging that at least one woman had received a financial settlement after she had complained about inappropriate behavior.

The accusations threaten Cain's surging campaign. He's been at the top of opinion polls in recent weeks, competitive with front-runner Mitt Romney in national surveys and in some early primary states.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is investigating possible improper financial arrangements between a charity and his campaign.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday that Cain, who also is dealing with sexual harassment allegations from the 1990s, allowed a tax-exempt charity to illegally provide money to help Cain's campaign get started.

Cain's chief of staff, Mark Block, says the campaign has asked a lawyer to review the transactions. Block says the campaign will comment when that investigation is over.

The charity, Prosperity USA, was founded by Block and Linda Hansen, Cain's deputy chief of staff. The Journal Sentinel reported there are questions about approximately $40,000 that helped Cain's campaign get started earlier this year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-10-31-Cain-Financing/id-8825b635c80d4ad2be82d69b0acf7402

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Android App Tablet Review: Skype (Appolicious)

Skype on your Android tablet is the same old program it's always been, but that?s no bad thing.

It's a great instant messenger tool and an inexpensive way to make calls to foreign countries. Registered users can call other registered users for free, and because millions use Skype, it's easy to find people you know.

Conveniently, the app's layout is almost identical to the program you may have used on your computer or smartphone.

The app's sound quality is crystal clear, the audio doesn't skip and you won't sound like a robot to your friends and family. Some Android tablets may be missing its video-calling capabilities, but the app is often updated to support new devices launched on the market.

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Paul Ryan's Newest Tax Policy Talking Point Trips Over Reality

WASHINGTON -- Joseph Rotella is president and owner of the Spencer Organ Co., a small business with 10 employees that specializes in rehabilitating pipe organs from churches and communities around the country. The operation does quite well, with roughly $2 million in revenue a year and enough profit to land Rotella squarely in the top tax bracket that benefits most from the Bush tax cuts.

That makes Rotella Exhibit A in a new effort from Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, to convince voters that in little more than a year, President Barack Obama will oversee a job-killing crush of tax hikes. Over the past week, the Wisconsin Republican has raised the frightening specter that under Obama's tax policies, small-business owners will soon be turning over half of their annual paycheck to the government.

"In 15 months' time, the top tax rate on small businesses goes to 44.8 percent. Now they are going to throw another tax increase on it," Ryan said during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" this past Sunday. "We are going to be taxing small businesses at about 50 percent. According to the Treasury Department, 80 percent of businesses file as individuals. Sixty percent of [small] businesses in this country file their tax rates as individuals and will get hit by this new tax that goes to 50 percent in 15 months. Why would we do that?"

Broadly speaking, we wouldn't. And even if we did, it turns out that many small-business owners, including Rotella, say it wouldn't make a bit of difference in their hiring decisions.

"If we have work and things are rolling along, then we're rolling along," said Rotella. "I'm not basing business decisions on whether our tax rate shifts a little bit one way or another."

He added, "My big concern is actually infrastructure within my community, because if my employees are happy, if there's good schools, roads that work, public transportation and public services that are good, then my employees are happy and they're more productive. If public transportation gets cut, one of my employees may have a much more difficult time getting to work. That's really hard. We've invested all this time into this employee, and then they have to think about doing something else for a living."

Despite testimonials like these, Ryan's argument that 60 percent of small businesses will face a tax rate of 50 percent --
stated most recently in a CNBC interview on Wednesday morning -- seems poised to become the GOP's top talking point in the weeks, if not months, ahead, as lawmakers look to stigmatize the president's job creation proposals and grease the wheels for a further extension of the Bush tax cuts.

But the argument is largely misleading, according to both small-business owners and analysis from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Ryan's office told HuffPost that his claim about the 50 percent rate is based on an agglomeration of several tax policies affecting wealthy individuals. By adding up the effects of multiple perks that will expire with the Bush tax cuts, and then lumping in individual Medicare taxes, Ryan created a total top rate for high earners of 44.8 percent. This combination of several different taxes is not how individual income tax rates are usually stated. Ryan could just as easily add in the average sales tax that individuals pay and cite that higher figure as the total tax rate.

On "Meet the Press," the congressman nevertheless made another addition to his already arbitrary figure, tacking on the 5.6 percent surtax on millionaires that Democrats have proposed to pay for the president's job creation proposals. From there, he arrived at the menacing 50 percent figure.

From a narrow, technical perspective, Ryan's claim about the total tax rate is true. Congressional Democrats acknowledge that the millionaires tax -- if it ever passed -- would remain in place even if the Bush tax cuts expired and the rates on the wealthy, as a result, rose.

The more problematic portion of Ryan's claim is his argument that, because many small businesses file as individuals rather than as corporations, higher taxes for rich individuals can be considered higher taxes on small businesses. In fact, the overwhelming majority of small businesses do not earn anywhere near enough profit to land them in the brackets that currently benefit from the Bush tax cuts.

According to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, just 2.2 percent of the 36 million taxpayers who report small-business income on their tax returns would land in the highest tax bracket if the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire. And only 1 percent would make enough to be subject to the millionaires surtax.

But even within this tiny slice, many of the operations that would be subject to higher taxes are not the mom-and-pop stores that the public generally pictures when it hears "small business."

"These are not all people running what we think of as small businesses," said Roberton Williams, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. "They may be giving speeches, writing books, we don't know. This includes lots and lots of different kinds of people. This could be a hedge fund manager. This could be a law partnership. This could be a doctor running his own office. Or it could be a guy operating a store with three employees."

Added a White House official: "[T]he Republican definition of 'small business' includes many investment managers, lawyers and extremely wealthy people who are not, by any common-sense definition, small-business owners. In fact, more than half of the top 400 earners ?- whose average income was $271 million ?- would qualify as small-business owners under the Republican definition."

If Ryan's numbers are debatable, so too is the premise of his argument. A trio of progressive-minded small-business organizations -- the American Sustainable Business Council, Business for Shared Prosperity, and Wealth for the Common Good -- have collected thousands of signatures for a petition seeking to repeal the Bush tax cuts and use the resulting revenue for sustained government investment in public infrastructure, renewable energy and education.

Rotella shares the sentiment. He isn't in the millionaire bracket, but he would qualify for Ryan's almost-as-dreaded 44.8 percent rate. He doesn't care.

"I'm actually in the tax bracket where the Bush tax cuts have been beneficial for me," Rotella said. "But my business is better off if that money goes to infrastructure."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/paul-ryan-tax-policy-small-business-owners_n_1002365.html

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