'Cyborg' implant can delivers electric shocks and drugs directly to the spine and read brain activity

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Thin ribbon lies along the spinal cord to deliver impulses and drugs Is supple enough to move like real tissue Can also be used to monitor electrical impulses from the brain in real time

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com

Published: 20:15 EST, 8 January 2015 | Updated: 04:19 EST, 9 January 2015

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It is a technology straight out of a science fiction film.

French researchers have revealed a 'cyborg' implant which can be attached to the spine to help the paralysed walk again.

The thin ribbon, withembedded with electrodes, which lies along the spinal cord and delivers electrical impulses and drugs, while being supple enough to move like real tissue - and researchers say it could even be attached to the brain.

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'Cyborg' implant can delivers electric shocks and drugs directly to the spine and read brain activity

Check Out a New Clip from Justice League: Throne of Atlantis

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DC Entertainment has released a new clip from the upcoming Justice League: Throne of Atlantis which you can check out in the player below!

In Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, Cyborg discovers an imminent threat in the depths of the oceans so powerful that it rallies together the newly formed Justice League. Meanwhile, wandering thousands of feet above the ocean floor is drifter Arthur Curry, a man with strange powers who may be the last chance to bridge the ancient Atlantean world with our own. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League must band together as they face off against warmongering Orm, an army of sea creatures, otherworldly weapons and perilous odds. In this all-new epic adventure from the DC Universe, mankinds only hope of escaping from the darkness lies with the guiding light of a man Aquaman!

Matt Lanter will provide the voice for Arthur Curry in the animated feature. Hes joined by Jason OMara as Batman, Shemar Moore as Cyborg, Christopher Gorham as The Flash, Sean Astin as Shazam, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Jerry OConnell as Superman, Sam Witwer as Aquamans devious brother Orm, and Sumalee Montano as his future bride Mera.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis will debut digitally on January 13, and on Blu-ray and DVD on January 27.

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Check Out a New Clip from Justice League: Throne of Atlantis

Reaction to Boca beach amenities 'mostly and strongly positive' so far

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It has been three months since Boca Raton began providing beachgoers surfside amenities, making the city's public beaches among the last in the tri-county area to start offering them.

So how much money has resulted so far from renting beach chairs and umbrellas? City records show $52,726 has changed hands in the first three months. Councilman Scott Singer said he was pleased with the progress.

"So far, the feedback has been mostly and strongly positive," Singer said.

For the first year, Oceanside Beach Service, the city's chosen concessionaire, will pay Boca Raton at least $54,000 to sell products on the beach, plus 15 percent of any amount over $350,000 in sales.

The rentals program began after City Council members grew concerned that beachgoers were bypassing Boca for beaches where families would not have to haul all the items needed for the day.

The first month that Oceanside Beach Service started offering beach chair and umbrella rentals in October on Boca's beaches, the rentals generated $31,561.04 in sales. The sales then dropped to $10,714.90 for November and then $10,450.66 in December.

Singer said he wasn't concerned about the falloff in sales that has occurred in the second and third months of the beach business. The first month likely spiked because a number of beachgoers bought into yearlong membership to use the beach furniture, he said.

Still, the limited number of products available far fewer than the concessionaire's contract with the city calls for has city officials concerned enough to ask for a specific time frame for when items such as drinks, snacks and boogie boards might be available.

Mike Woika, Boca's assistant city manager, said that city officials hope to meet with Oceanside sometime this coming week to firm up plans for more items to be offered for sale. At first, Oceanside said it would start selling more items two weeks after the opening Oct. 1.

"Everyone knew there was going to be a transition period from when they first started," Woika said. "We're looking for that transition to start taking place."

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Reaction to Boca beach amenities 'mostly and strongly positive' so far

Night Sky to Offer Treats to Astronomy Fans

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Free public viewings of comet and Jupiter will take place Jan. 13 and Jan. 23, respectively, at UC Riverside

By Iqbal Pittalwala on January 9, 2015

Comet Lovejoy.Photo credit: NASA/MSFC/MEO/Aaron Kingery

RIVERSIDE, Calif. Astronomy enthusiasts are in for a treat in the coming weeks. Actually, two treats.

On Tuesday, Jan. 13, the public will have an opportunity to view Comet Lovejoy, designated C2014/Q2, through telescopes set up at the University of California, Riverside, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The viewing will take place in the lawn south of Pierce Hall and the Science Laboratories 1 Building, a short walk from the bell tower. UC Riverside astronomers will be available to discuss the comet in English, Spanish and Farsi.

Lovejoy C2014/Q2, discovered in August 2012 by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy in Australia, is the first comet visible with the naked eye in 2015.

Most comets dont achieve such a high brightness, so this is a perfect opportunity to go into dark sky areas, or use your binoculars and telescopes, to watch an easily identifiable comet, said Mario de Leo Winkler, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, who is organizing the viewing. Predicting how the brightness of the comet will evolve with time is a very hard task and full of unexpected changes. Lovejoy C2014/Q2 entered the naked-eye visibility threshold brightness magnitude 6 or less in mid-December and is expected to stay that way until mid-February. Peak brightness is expected in mid-January, around 4.1 magnitude.

De Leo Winkler explained that the comet is crossing the night sky fast, going higher above the horizon as January progresses, making it easier to see it, from the Northern Hemisphere, near constellations Orion, Taurus and Perseus. The comets orbital period around the sun was estimated at 11,000 years before it entered the gravitational pull of all planets and the sun. It has now been altered to 8,000 year, approximately, after its inner-Solar System path.

The closest it will be to the sun, its perihelion, will be on Jan. 30, De Leo Winkler said.

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Night Sky to Offer Treats to Astronomy Fans

More accurate Saturn positioning helps improve astro navigation

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Scientists have used the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system and NASA's Cassini spacecraft to measure the position of Saturn and its family of moons to within about a mile - at a range of nearly a billion miles.

This feat improves astronomers' knowledge of the dynamics of our Solar System and also benefits interplanetary spacecraft navigation and research on fundamental physics.

The researchers, from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), used the continent-wide VLBA to pinpoint the position of Cassini as it orbited Saturn over the past decade by receiving the signal from the spacecraft's radio transmitter.

Combined with information about Cassini's orbit from NASA's Deep Space Network, the VLBA observations allowed the scientists to make the most accurate determinations yet of the position of the center of mass, called the barycenter, of Saturn and its numerous moons.

The scientists presented the results of their work at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Seattle, Washington.

The measurement, some 50-100 times more precise than those provided by ground-based optical telescopes, was possible because of the VLBA's great resolving power, or ability to discern fine detail. With its 10 dish antennas spread from Hawaii to the Virgin Islands, the VLBA operates as a single radio telescope with a virtual size nearly equal to the Earth's diameter.

The result is a greatly improved ephemeris - a table of predicted positions - for the Saturnian system.

"An accurate ephemeris is one of the basic tools of astronomy, and this work is a great step toward tying together our understanding of the orbits of the outer planets and those of the inner planets," said Dayton Jones, of JPL, in Pasadena, California. "The orbits of the inner planets are well tied together, but those of the outer planets, including Saturn, have not been tied as well to each other or to those of the inner planets," Jones said.

The improved positional information will directly benefit scientists' ability to precisely navigate interplanetary spacecraft. In addition, it will help refine measurements of the masses of other Solar System objects. Also, the positional precision will improve predictions of when Saturn or its rings will pass in front of background stars, events that provide a variety of research opportunities.

Other benefits will come to studies of several aspects of fundamental physics. The new positional information will help researchers improve their precision when timing the radio pulses from pulsars - spinning superdense neutron stars. Such timing will help answer unsolved questions about particle physics and the exact nature of the highly-compressed material inside a neutron star.

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More accurate Saturn positioning helps improve astro navigation

Secondary Analysis of RTOG 0247 Demonstrates Favorable Overall Survival Rates for Rectal Cancer Patients Who Received …

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Newswise Fairfax, Va., January 9, 2015 Locally advanced rectal cancer patients who receive preoperative radiation therapy with either irinotecan plus capecitabine or oxaliplatin plus capecitabine have a four-year overall survival rate of 85 percent and 75 percent, respectively, according to a study published in the January 1, 2015 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). This study is a secondary endpoint analysis of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0247, originally published in 2012[1], to evaluate long-term survival outcomes and patterns of failure.

RTOG 0247 was a randomized, Phase II multicenter trial of patients with locally advanced (T3 and T4) rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation from March 2004 to February 2007. The primary endpoint analysis of RTOG 0247 examined the pathologic complete remission (pCR) rates of two concurrent neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimens to determine which regimen should be studied further. The initial results demonstrated that patients who received irinotecan plus capecitabine had lower pCR rates (10 percent compared to those who received oxaliplatin plus capecitabine (21 percent).

The study accrued 146 patients from 59 institutions from March 2004 to February 2007. All patients received preoperative pelvic radiation therapy of 50.4 Gy over five-and-a-half weeks, with 45 Gy delivered in 25 fractions (1.8 Gy per fraction, five fractions per week for five weeks) and a boost of 5.4 Gy in three fractions. Patients were randomized to two chemotherapy treatment arms concurrent to their radiation therapy: Patients in arm 1 received concurrent chemotherapy consisting of four doses of irinotecan (50 mg/m2 IV weekly) and capecitabine (1200 mg/m2/d orally Monday through Friday during radiation therapy). Patients in arm 2 received concurrent chemotherapy consisting of five doses of oxaliplatin (50 mg/m2 IV weekly) and capecitabine (1600 mg/m2/d orally Monday through Friday during radiation therapy). All patients in each arm had surgery four to six weeks after completion of radiation therapy, and all patients in both arms had postoperative chemotherapy of FOLFOX four to six weeks after surgery. (FOLFOX includes oxaliplatin, leucovorin; 5-fluorouacil (5-FU); and 5-FU infusion).

Both arms of the study were temporarily closed in January 2005 due to excessive gastrointestinal adverse events. The study reopened in April 2005 with an amended chemotherapy regimen. One hundred four (104) patients, 52 in each arm, were eligible and included in this analysis. Eligible patients were at least 18 years old with a median age of 57 years; had clinical stage T3 or T4, potentially resectable adenocarcinoma of the rectum originating 12 cm from the anal verge without evidence of distant metastasis; had Zubrod performance of zero to two (the Zubrod performance scale grades patient health status from 0 to 4: a score of 0 means that the patient is fully active, able to carry on all pre-disease performance without restriction; and a score of 4 means that the patient is completely disabled, cannot carry on any self-care, totally confined to a chair or bed); and had adequate hematologic, renal, cardiac and hepatic function.

Patient evaluations occurred weekly during concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy, before surgery and before each cycle of postoperative chemotherapy. Follow-up was conducted every three months for the first two years post-treatment, every six months for the next three years and annually thereafter. The median follow-up for patients in arm 1 was 3.77 years (range 0.19 to 5.23 years), and the median follow-up for patients in arm 2 was 3.97 years (range 0.44 to 5.15 years).

The new studys analysis of RTOG 0247s long-term data found that at four-year follow-up, patients in arm 1 (irinotecan plus capecitabine) had an overall survival (OS) rate of 85 percent (44); a disease-free survival (DFS) rate of 68 percent (35), a local-regional failure (LRF) rate of 16 percent (8), a distant failure (DF) rate of 24 percent (12) and a second/new primary failure (SP) rate of 2 percent (1). At four-year follow-up, patients in arm 2 (oxaliplatin plus capecitabine) had an OS rate of 75 percent (39), a DFS rate of 62 percent (32), a LRF rate of 18 percent (9), a DF rate of 30 percent (16) and an SP rate of 6 percent (3). All measures had a 95 percent confidence interval.

Our new analysis of RTOG 0247 provides us with favorable efficacy results of two preoperative chemotherapy regimens used in conjunction with radiation therapy protocols, said Neal J. Meropol, MD, co-author of the study, and the Dr. Lester E. Coleman Jr., Professor of Cancer Research and Therapeutics and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. These favorable long-term survival rates confirm that both of these concurrent chemoradiotherapy regimens followed by surgery can be a highly curative approach for patients with localized rectal cancer, despite the low pCR results we reported in 2012. It is important to find new biomarkers beyond the local remission rate that can help us determine which patients will be cured and who may benefit from more aggressive therapy following chemoradiation.

For a copy of the study manuscript, contact ASTROs Press Office at press@astro.org. For more information about the Red Journal, visit http://www.redjournal.org.

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Secondary Analysis of RTOG 0247 Demonstrates Favorable Overall Survival Rates for Rectal Cancer Patients Who Received ...

Cars damaged by eggs, and 11 news snippets you may have missed

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SEVERAL cars parked in Cherry Drive and Chestnut Drive at Holme-on-Spalding Moor were damaged when eggs were thrown at them on a number of occasions between Christmas Eve and Monday.

Anyone with information should call Humberside Police on 101.

Woman freed from car

FIREFIGHTERS removed the roof of a car to free a woman after it collided with another vehicle in Fleet Lane, Tockwith, yesterday.

The 58-year-old woman was taken to hospital with neck and shoulder injuries, as was another woman who had a suspected spinal condition.

Trough stolen from field

THIEVES stole a black plastic double self-feeding water trough from a field in Hirst Courtney between January 4 and 7.

North Yorkshire Police said the trough has a flat back and is half-moon shaped with a central blue ballcock and yellow hose. Anyone with information or who has been offered a similar item for sale should contact the police on 101.

Open weekend at sportsclub

WIGGINTON Squash and Social Club are holding an open weekend tomorrow and on Sunday.

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Cars damaged by eggs, and 11 news snippets you may have missed

Secondary analysis of RTOG 0247 demonstrates favorable OS rates for rectal cancer patients

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Patients received two different chemotherapy regimens concurrently with radiation therapy prior to surgery

Fairfax, Va., January 9, 2015 --Locally advanced rectal cancer patients who receive preoperative radiation therapy with either irinotecan plus capecitabine or oxaliplatin plus capecitabine have a four-year overall survival rate of 85 percent and 75 percent, respectively, according to a study published in the January 1, 2015 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). This study is a secondary endpoint analysis of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0247, originally published in 2012[1], to evaluate long-term survival outcomes and patterns of failure.

RTOG 0247 was a randomized, Phase II multicenter trial of patients with locally advanced (T3 and T4) rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation from March 2004 to February 2007. The primary endpoint analysis of RTOG 0247 examined the pathologic complete remission (pCR) rates of two concurrent neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimens to determine which regimen should be studied further. The initial results demonstrated that patients who received irinotecan plus capecitabine had lower pCR rates (10 percent compared to those who received oxaliplatin plus capecitabine (21 percent).

The study accrued 146 patients from 59 institutions from March 2004 to February 2007. All patients received preoperative pelvic radiation therapy of 50.4 Gy over five-and-a-half weeks, with 45 Gy delivered in 25 fractions (1.8 Gy per fraction, five fractions per week for five weeks) and a boost of 5.4 Gy in three fractions. Patients were randomized to two chemotherapy treatment arms concurrent to their radiation therapy: Patients in arm 1 received concurrent chemotherapy consisting of four doses of irinotecan (50 mg/m2 IV weekly) and capecitabine (1200 mg/m2/d orally Monday through Friday during radiation therapy). Patients in arm 2 received concurrent chemotherapy consisting of five doses of oxaliplatin (50 mg/m2 IV weekly) and capecitabine (1600 mg/m2/d orally Monday through Friday during radiation therapy). All patients in each arm had surgery four to six weeks after completion of radiation therapy, and all patients in both arms had postoperative chemotherapy of FOLFOX four to six weeks after surgery. (FOLFOX includes oxaliplatin, leucovorin; 5-fluorouacil (5-FU); and 5-FU infusion).

Both arms of the study were temporarily closed in January 2005 due to excessive gastrointestinal adverse events. The study reopened in April 2005 with an amended chemotherapy regimen. One hundred four (104) patients, 52 in each arm, were eligible and included in this analysis. Eligible patients were at least 18 years old with a median age of 57 years; had clinical stage T3 or T4, potentially resectable adenocarcinoma of the rectum originating ? 12 cm from the anal verge without evidence of distant metastasis; had Zubrod performance of zero to two (the Zubrod performance scale grades patient health status from 0 to 4: a score of 0 means that the patient is "fully active, able to carry on all pre-disease performance without restriction;" and a score of 4 means that the patient is "completely disabled, cannot carry on any self-care, totally confined to a chair or bed"); and had adequate hematologic, renal, cardiac and hepatic function.

Patient evaluations occurred weekly during concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy, before surgery and before each cycle of postoperative chemotherapy. Follow-up was conducted every three months for the first two years post-treatment, every six months for the next three years and annually thereafter. The median follow-up for patients in arm 1 was 3.77 years (range 0.19 to 5.23 years), and the median follow-up for patients in arm 2 was 3.97 years (range 0.44 to 5.15 years).

The new study's analysis of RTOG 0247's long-term data found that at four-year follow-up, patients in arm 1 (irinotecan plus capecitabine) had an overall survival (OS) rate of 85 percent (44); a disease-free survival (DFS) rate of 68 percent (35), a local-regional failure (LRF) rate of 16 percent (8), a distant failure (DF) rate of 24 percent (12) and a second/new primary failure (SP) rate of 2 percent (1). At four-year follow-up, patients in arm 2 (oxaliplatin plus capecitabine) had an OS rate of 75 percent (39), a DFS rate of 62 percent (32), a LRF rate of 18 percent (9), a DF rate of 30 percent (16) and an SP rate of 6 percent (3). All measures had a 95 percent confidence interval.

"Our new analysis of RTOG 0247 provides us with favorable efficacy results of two preoperative chemotherapy regimens used in conjunction with radiation therapy protocols," said Neal J. Meropol, MD, co-author of the study, and the Dr. Lester E. Coleman Jr., Professor of Cancer Research and Therapeutics and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "These favorable long-term survival rates confirm that both of these concurrent chemoradiotherapy regimens followed by surgery can be a highly curative approach for patients with localized rectal cancer, despite the low pCR results we reported in 2012. It is important to find new biomarkers beyond the local remission rate that can help us determine which patients will be cured and who may benefit from more aggressive therapy following chemoradiation."

###

For a copy of the study manuscript, contact ASTRO's Press Office at press@astro.org. For more information about the Red Journal, visit http://www.redjournal.org.

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Secondary analysis of RTOG 0247 demonstrates favorable OS rates for rectal cancer patients

CES 2015: THE FURO-S SMART SERVICE ROBOT WANTS TO HELP YOU CATCH YOUR FLIGHT – Video

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CES 2015: THE FURO-S SMART SERVICE ROBOT WANTS TO HELP YOU CATCH YOUR FLIGHT
Meet the Furo-S Smart Service Robot, an intelligent kiosk with strong artificial intelligence and is ready to serve. Created by Future Robot, the Furo-S (lovingly nicknamed Rosie after the...

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CES 2015: THE FURO-S SMART SERVICE ROBOT WANTS TO HELP YOU CATCH YOUR FLIGHT - Video

Angelina Jolie touches down in Rome amid speculation she will meet Pope Francis

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(CREDIT: REUTERS/PATRICK RIVIERE)

Angelina Jolie (L-R), cast member Miyavi, his wife Melody Ishihara and Brad Pitt attend the world premiere of Jolie's film ''Unbroken'' at the State Theatre in Sydney November 17, 2014.

Hollywood actress and producer Angelina Jolie arrived in Rome on Wednesday with daughters Zahara, 9, and Shiloh, 8, amid speculation that she will meet the Pope this week.

Sources say Jolie and husband Brad Pitt will meet Pope Francis in a "VIP meet-and-greet at the Vatican" while they are in town.

The paparazzi were on hand as the trio arrived at the Ciampino airport with their bodyguards this afternoon, and entered an awaiting black SUV. According to UsWeekly, Jolie's head of security flew out earlier to conduct a security check prior to the family's arrival.

It is unclear if Pitt is already in Rome or will arrive at a later date.

The 51-year-old leading man was raised in the Southern Baptist faith, but does not consider himself a Christian.

"I grew up very religious, and I don't have a great relationship with religion," he told TheHollywood Reporterin a 2012 interview. "I oscillate between agnosticism and atheism."

Jolie, 39, rarely discusses her faith in interviews, but appeared to lean towards atheism in 2000 when asked if there is a God.

"For some people," she told A.V. Club. "I hope so, for them. For the people who believe in it, I hope so. There doesn't need to be a God for me. There's something in people that's spiritual, that's godlike.

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Angelina Jolie touches down in Rome amid speculation she will meet Pope Francis

Hubble Telescope Captures Best View Ever of the Andromeda Galaxy

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SEATTLE The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing new photo of the Andromeda Galaxy. The new mosaic image represents the sharpest and largest mosaic image of the Milky Way's galactic neighbor ever taken, Hubble officials said.

The panoramic image shows striking details of the bright galaxy, which is located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. While that may seem far away, Hubble usually trains its view on more distant targets. Because Andromeda fills up so much of Hubble's field of view, the telescope was able to capture incredible detail in its survey of the galaxy. Fly through the amazing Andromeda image in a new video as well.

The newly-released image stretches across about 48,000 light-years of the galaxy's disk, according to Hubble officials. In total, the image shows more than 100 million stars in the galaxy. Hubble officials revealed the new photo during a news conference here at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. [See more amazing Hubble Space Telescope photos]

"Hubble traces densely packed stars extending from the innermost hub of the galaxy, seen at left," Hubble representatives said in a statement. "Moving out from this central galactic bulge, the panorama sweeps from the galaxy's central bulge across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outer disk."

Scientists can use this image to help them interpret other spiral galaxies like theAndromeda galaxythat might have similar light signatures, but are farther from Earth.

The panorama was created as part of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program. This image was created as a mosaic of 7,398 exposures taken over the course of 411 pointings of the telescope, according to Hubble officials.

"Large groups of young blue stars indicate the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions. The stars bunch up in the blue ring-like feature toward the right side of the image," Hubble representatives said in the same statement. "The dark silhouettes trace out complex dust structures. Underlying the entire galaxy is a smooth distribution of cooler red stars that trace Andromeda's evolution over billions of years."

Andromeda and the Milky Way are on the way toward a crash of cosmic proportions. The two galaxies will merge, forming one new galaxy billions of years from now.

You can explore a zoomable version of the new PHAT image directly through Hubble here: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/02/image/a/format/zoom/

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Hubble Telescope Captures Best View Ever of the Andromeda Galaxy

NATO Commando Special Forces: Poland has taken over the rotating leadership – Video

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NATO Commando Special Forces: Poland has taken over the rotating leadership
Polish forces have taken over the rotating leadership of the NATO commando special forces.The Polish soldiers had to undergo five years of intensive training before they were eligible for the...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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NATO Commando Special Forces: Poland has taken over the rotating leadership - Video