TCR Volume 2 Issue No 30 by The CenSEI Report

cenSEI T H E

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Strategic Analysis and Research by the

Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence I think this is the biggest day of my life. I think this is just extraordinary ~ London Olympics chief Sebastian Coe on the first day of the Games The atmosphere is amazing. The crowd is buzzing and it's amazing to be a part of something so big. I'm really nervous but nervous-excited ~ Dancer Rebecca Simpson before the opening ceremony

Volume 2 - Number 30 • July 30-August 5, 2012

NATION 2012

3 Annual Report to the People

SONA

WORLD

President Benigno Aquino III's third State of the Nation Address was his longest, with information and initiatives across many fields. We focus on his winning campaign themes: alleviating poverty by fighting corruption and creating jobs

11 The Squeeze in Rare Earths

China’s continuing restrictions on rare earth exports is putting the world on notice: Major importing countries have filed a trade case against China’s continuing restrictions on rare earth exports but the world isn’t waiting for it to be resolved • A quick intro to rare earths: A list of rare earth elements and some of their applications

BUSINESS

17 Nanotechnology: It’s a Small World

The emerging science of nanotechnology is leading to improvements in all sorts of consumer products, and, quite possibly, food and medicine before too long • Nanomedical projects: The U.S.' National Institutes of Health is funding a major initiative to promote the use of nanotechnology in combating cancer

TECHNOLOGY

HEALTH/LIFESTYLE ALZHE MER’S DISEASE alzh imer’s dise se ALZHEI ER’S DI EASE alzhei er’s dis ase A ZHEIM R’S DIS ASE al heime ’s disea e ALZ EIMER S DIS ASE alzh imer’s d sease

CONTENTS NATION

25 Protecting Our Passwords

With recent incidents of online account information theft, password security is becoming a major concern. TCR shows how to make your passwords hard to hack • The worst passwords: Apparently, birds of the same feather can’t stop flocking together. See if your passwords are among the ones that keep turning up

33 Detecting and Defeating Alzheimer’s Disease

Research is turning up early physical and physiological indicators of Alzheimer’s, as well as possible treatments and measures to prevent the disease from advancing • Telltale signs: A quick guide to symptoms of the brain-decaying disease afflicting millions • Celebrities battling Alzheimer’s: The disease can strike anyone, even authors, athletes, and movie stars

WORLD BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGY

POINT & CLICK You can access online research via the Internet by clicking phrases in blue

HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence provides expertise in strategy and management, enterprise development, intelligence, Internet and media. For subscriptions, research, and advisory services, please e-mail report@censeisolutions.com or call/fax +63-2-5311182. Links to online material on public websites are current as of the week prior to the publication date, but might be removed without warning. Publishers of linked content should e-mail us or contact us by fax if they do not wish their websites to be linked to our material in the future.

From High and Low, Big and Small, Knowing and Unknowing Things big and small happen all the time, everyday, whether right before our eyes or at a level we just can't see. This week finds The CenSEI Report casting an especially watchful eye on the world from extreme vantage points of high and low, mega and minute, knowing and unknowing. At the macro level, countries are scrambling to find rare earth elements for all sorts of electronic applications, and The CenSEI Report explores some dimensions of the world's newfound urgency to find these elements. These fringe denizens of the chemical table are not just indispensable ingredients for modern technology, but also bargaining chips of geopolitical leverage, especially with rising China smack in the middle of the global supply. Plainly, rare earth elements could shape up to be what petroleum was when the Arabs first squeezed the world supply two score ago. Turning to an extremely micro level, we take a look at the emerging science and fast-growing business of nanotechnology – a world several layers under the microscope – and examine where the knowhow can make a mammoth difference in many aspects of human life, from water-repellent fabrics to faster-charging batteries to cures for cancer. With such potential applications, of course, the nine- or ten-figure bottom line isn’t far behind. In between the extremes, at a national level, the Report takes a reflective look at President Benigno Aquino III's latest State of the Nation Address, moving beyond the sound bites and flood of details and shining a light on what should really matter. And our guide to the significant include, among others, our own coverage over the past year, which highlighted such paramount concerns as economic resilience and competitiveness, the reduction of poverty and hunger, and the promotion of honesty, transparency and accountability in the public service. On the level of personal technology, we look at the latest rash of hacking incidents, and sound a warning about the security of those online accounts on which we've come to be so dependent, along with tips on how to keep those accounts safe from those who would divine or decrypt your passwords. Plainly, these strings of characters, numerals and symbols must be guarded as closely as any dark personal secret. Indeed, they are often the key to open a person’s financial, family, political, security and otherwise sensitive knowledge. Then we take a look down the road, at Alzheimer's disease – an affliction that causes people lo lose their minds in the most literal, physical sense. Our research holds out hope of early detection and possible containment and prevention. Of course, before then, many a sufferer will do just that: suffer the progressive fading of fancy and faculties. Yet even this unknowing is worth knowing thoroughly for The CenSEI Report.

NATION

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Annual Report to the People

“N

othing is impossible to a united Filipino nation. It was change we dreamed of, and change we achieved; the benefits of change are now par for the course.” So declared President Benigno Aquino III in his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 23, delivered in Filipino with an official English translation on the government website. Those statements from the 88-minute speech summed up its overriding message and spirit: not a sweeping governance blueprint or detailed progress report, as SONAs of Aquino’s predecessor were, but choice facts and facets to highlight major achievements and new initiatives of his two-year-old administration.

President Aquino extols Asia-pacing first-quarter economic growth YouTube

Growing the economy, alleviating poverty and advancing good governance in the State of the Nation Address By the Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence

STRATEGY POINTS While President Aquino extolled rising economic growth, the real challenges are still creating jobs and generating investment The trebling of the flagship ₱40-billion CCT program is helping tens of millions of the poor, but poverty and hunger remain high DPWH and DBM are making strong gains in good governance. Now the rest of the government must step up to expectations

This report on the SONA aims not for media and popular impact with impressive sound and data bites, but strategic import for policy analysts and decision makers, focusing on key segments of the address with the most significance for national governance, welfare, and development: the economy, poverty alleviation, and good governance, the President’s highest avowed concern. Since much material for this SONA assessment will come from 2012 reports by various writeranalysts of the Center for Strategy, Enterprise and Intelligence (CenSEI), an institutional byline is given. Also widely used in this article is The 2012 SONA Technical Report by the Presidential Management Staff (PMS), Malacañang’s primary decision support arm. A question of numbers. As expected by many, President Aquino pointed to the 6.4% first-quarter growth in gross domestic product, the total value of all goods and services produced in the country in a given period. He also said 3.1 million jobs were created since 2010, and unemployment fell to 6.9% from 8%. The address also highlighted the eight upgrades in credit ratings or outlooks in the past two

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Annual report to the people

years. Aquino declared: “Once, we were the debtors; now, we are the creditors, clearly no laughing matter. Until recently, we had to beg for investments; now, investors flock to us.”

7.0%, according DOLE, about the same as the 6.9% rate trumpeted by Aquino.

In his July 9-15 article, “Two Years of ‘Aquinomics,’” CenSEI senior analyst Verbo Bonilla acknowledged the Asia-pacing growth, but argued that “competitiveness is key” to sustaining and accelerating it. Here the Philippines has much work to do for higher placing in several global surveys, including those of Swiss-based Institute for Management Development, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the World Bank.

About the claimed 3.1 million new jobs, it’s not clear where PMS got the figure in its report. A DOLE table counted 37.84 million employed Filipinos in April, up from nearly 36.24 million in July 2010, for a net gain of 1.6 million — half the SONA figure. For his part, former Far Eastern Economic Review correspondent Rigoberto Tiglao noted in his Philippine Daily Inquirer column, “11m bosses now without work, not enough work,” that underemployment surged by 800,000 under Aquino, as people unable to find jobs take unpaid or low-paying part-time work.

As for investors flocking in, for January-March, the country received only 5% of foreign direct investment in five major Southeast Asian economies — least among Malaysia (12%), Vietnam (13%), Indonesia (30%), and Thailand (39%). No apparent impact of credit upgrades here.

Bottom line on the economic SONA: attracting investment and creating employment still pose formidable and largely unmet challenges. The first step in addressing them is zeroing in on the real numbers showing where we rank in the world and how many Filipinos are at work or out of it.

The President’s speechwriter seems to have confused the jobs data from PMS and the Department of Labor and Employment. The SONA Technical Report said on page 13 that 8% was the “average unemployment” between 2006 and 2009, not the 2010 rate, as read out by the President. In fact, joblessness in July 2010 was

CCT, COA, and SWS. The social services portion of the President’s address centered on direct cash assistance, health and education programs. With more than ₱40 billion disbursed under his watch, Aquino said conditional cash transfer (CCT) monthly stipends of up to ₱1,400 per household,

ON AND OFF THE JOB Philippine Employment and Unemployment, 2010-2012 Labor Force Indicator Unemployment (%)

July

2010

7.0

729

Emplyed Persons ('000)

36,237

Average Employment Generated ('000)

Oct

Jan

Apr

1,010

292

1,407

7.1

Net Employment Gains ('000)

2011

7.4

7.2

870

July

Oct

Jan

869

2,061

1,101

7.1

6.4

7.2

1,157

36,488

36,293

36,820

2012

37,106

Apr

Ave

1,021

1,061

6.9

1,061 38,550

37,394

37,841

7.0

1,029 37,091

Table from 2012 SONA Technical Report, page 13, based on DOLE data

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benefited 3 million poor families as of February, four times the number in June 2010. The increase is within expectations: the budget also quadrupled from P10 billion in 2010 to P39.44 billion this year (see table from page 29 of the Technical Report). The SONA added that more than 1.6 million mothers got checkups, as required to receive assistance, and about the same number of children got vaccines. Another 4.67 million children of CCT families are in school, another stipend condition. No data from past years were mentioned in the speech or the Technical Report.

unliquidated by year-end.” Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has given assurances that 2010 audit issues, “covering the implementation period 20072009,” had been addressed. More than 6,000 unqualified households were delisted by July this year. Of the ₱6.6 billion cited as unliquidated, ₱3 billion was in fact not yet disbursed, according to Soliman. Most of the ₱3.6-billion balance was accounted for by June this year, with ₱570 million awaiting liquidation reports.

THREE MILLION AND COUNTING Conditional Cash Transfer Stipend Releases and Beneficiaries, 2010-2012 Year

2010 2011

2012

Budget (in ₱ billion)

10.00

21.19

39.44

Registration of Households

Cash Grants

Registered

Target

1,035,431

1,015,000

102.1

2,345,639

3,014,586 (as of June)

2,339,241

3,106,979 (for 2012)

100.27 97.03

Released (in ₱ billion) 10.22

17.13

13.51 (Jan-Jun)

Household Beneficiaries 1,028,794

2,315,301

2,947,142

Table from 2012 SONA Technical Report, page 29, based on DSWD data

Data from past years are needed to see whether the latest data grew commensurately with the budget increases. Even more important are measures to address concerns raised by the Commission on Audit. As noted in the 2010 COA report executive summary, random sample audits found ₱138 million in CCT funds left idle due to non-compliance with conditions as well as listing of thousands of families in two payrolls. Household data was not validated, and “cash grants totaling P367 million were released to 60,433 sampled beneficiaries despite non-compliance.” That was a small sample. Overall, COA stated on page xiv of the summary that ₱6.64 billion in CCT disbursements “remained

That was for COA comments when CCT spending was well below P10 billion annually. Last year it rose to ₱23 billion, then ₱39 billion this year and, if approved, ₱44.2 billion in 2013. The number of households to check on and deliver funds to now top 3 million, expanding administrative burdens, even as staunch Aquino ally Senator Franklin Drilon wants their costs cut to 7%-10% of total budget, from a little over 10% now, or ₱4 billion. As CCT rises, so does SWS. A third acronym for the CCT issue is SWS, short for the Social Weather Stations surveys on hunger and poverty. Whenever they spike, the Palace and DSWD promptly announce that CCT would be accelerated to bring more food on the table and money in the pockets of poor families.

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Annual report to the people

Yet despite giving some assistance now, the program’s impact had always been mainly longterm: improving future health and education by providing incentives for the indigent to get health care and keep children in school. In his May 14-20 article, “Are We Losing the War on Hunger?”, CenSEI Managing Director Ricardo Saludo, who used to regularly monitor

Hungry chart from Saludo’s “The Numbers Game,” in The CenSEI Report, June 18-24). All three SWS indicators moderated in May polls: to 18.4% for hunger, 51% for self-rated poverty, and 26.6% for unemployment, as jobs and incomes rose amid the construction and tourism surge in the country’s summer season. But that may be brief relief as both building and leisure spending take a dive in the current rainy months.

Jobless, poor and hungry SWS Unemployment & Poverty Survey Results, September 2010-March 2012 percent of Filipinos age 18 or older Poor

Food-poor

Jobless

Hungry

60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Sept 2010

Nov

March 2011

June

Sept

Dec

March 2012

CenSEI Graphic based on SWS data

both empty stomachs and monthly stipends as Cabinet Secretary in the Arroyo administration, pointed out: “Despite tens of billions of pesos in monthly stipends for the poor, hunger has risen in all quarters but one since September 2010,” the first SWS assessment under Aquino. Hunger incidence hit a record 23.8% in March this year, tracking both poverty and unemployment to their own peaks of 55% and 34.4%, respectively (see Jobless, Poor and

The

In his hunger article, Saludo concluded: “From family size and educational level to the breadwinner’s occupation and field of work, the characteristics of hungry families point to different ways to help the poor get more food on the table than just a monthly trip to the Land Bank ATM machine [where CCT is disbursed].” To be sure, the government has a sweeping antipoverty agenda spanning not just direct cash assistance, but also Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 basic education reform, universal health care,

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7 HEALTH IS WEALTH PhilHealth Insurance Coverage and National Population, 2010-2012 94.01

100

in millions

80 60 40 20 0

95.74

95.98 81.63

78.87 58.32

62% of total population

82% of total population

85% of total population

2010

2011

May 2012

Philhealth Enrolled Population

Total Projected Population

PhilHealth chart from SONA Technical Report, 30

agricultural development, disaster response and prevention, among others. Harnessing and monitoring all those initiatives in an integrated program targeting poverty and hunger would spread the excessive burden placed on CCT in lifting the poor and hungry.

Secretary Rafael Singson for bidding reforms at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which were credited for saving P10.6 billion up to June this year through reductions between budgeted and actual expenditures on projects.

On the ‘Straight Road.’ President Aquino’s campaign mantra of fighting poverty by reducing corruption got full play as usual in his third SONA. What did he have to show after two years of his Tuwid na Daan (Straight Road) anti-graft crusade? He highlighted the impeachment of then-Chief Justice Renato Corona, and the cases against former president Gloria Arroyo, arrested last November on electoral sabotage charges, but granted bail recently.

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) affirms the reforms at DPWH. PCIJ’s two-part “More open bids, savings up amid project delays,” published in April this year, did some number-crunching on bidding and contracting at the agency. Under Singson, an average 4.4 firms bid for projects worth ₱50 million or more, up from 1.3 in the past regime. On average, the lowest bids are now 10.9% less than the budgeted cost, more than double the 4.7% reduction previously.

In directly addressing present state corruption and inefficiency, however, three other initiatives bear watching: one already delivering gains, another due to roll out over the coming year, and a third going nowhere. In his address, President Aquino gave special mention to

But there is a caveat: “Still, the DPWH’s estimated savings of ₱5.5 billion, commendable as it is, came after lengthy periods of administrative reviews ... These inevitably delayed the completion of badly needed public

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Annual report to the people

works such as roads, bridges, classrooms, river dikes, irrigation canals, and others.” Citing DPWH’s 2011 accomplishment report, PCIJ writer Roel Landingin notes that the department is short of its targets by 59.4% in replacing temporary bridges with permanent ones, 25.6% for new bridges, and 22.6% on paving roads. But it is ahead by 63.2% in new road construction and 47.8% in rehabilitating bridges and flyovers. So honest doesn’t always mean slow.

President Aquino spoke of giving state personnel incentive pay of as much as ₱36,000 on top of the annual year-end bonus, depending on their accomplishments. When fully implemented, the The drive to get system holds the promise of finally prodding civil servants better results from to excel and rewarding those the bureaucracy who do.

comes just in time, as the President’s clarion call for reforms has raised expectations here and abroad

Making pesos and persons perform. Along with DPWH’s Singson, Secretary Florencio Abad of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is also making good progress on the transparency and accountability front. DBM’s early budget call and submission, zero-based budgeting, and no-lump-sum policy have helped channel funds more closely to development priorities, programs and projects. Abad eventually aims to have a national budget law that is itself a fund release document by 2014 (Technical Report, page 4). And for those who want to check out government spending online, DBM recently launched www.budgetngbayan.com, while local government units (LGUs) have been required since August 2010 to post “information on fund utilization and implementation of projects in local bulletin boards, newspapers and/or websites.” The SONA report says 99% of LGUs are complying. DBM, along with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and COA, is set to pilot another initiative to get the 1-million-plus bureaucracy doing their jobs better: Results-Based Performance Monitoring System (RBPMS). In the SONA,

The

The push to get better performance from rank and file comes none too soon, as the administration’s clarion call for reform has raised perceptions and expectations on the government’s systems and procedures. The SONA Technical Report (pages 10-11) cites the Corruption Perceptions Index 2011, the World Economic Forum’s Global Trade Enabling Report and Global Competitiveness Report, and the 2012 Economic Freedom Index as showing improved perception ratings for the Philippines in dealings with the government. The bureaucracy must now live up to these expectations. A full and detailed exposition of those expectations has been committed to the world in the 55-state Open Government Partnership (OGP), which the Philippines joined as a founding member last September. The OGP Action Plan for the country provides wideranging commitments governing state finances, public servants, and collaboration with and empowerment of the people. OGP country sites show not only what the government pledges to do, but also what it has done so far. For all the avowed promises for open government, at least one major blinder seems to remain in the administration’s push for transparency: the Freedom of Information bill. It remains a continuing omission in the SONA, and isn’t even in its Technical Report.

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President Aquino at OGP founding in New York last September: Promises to keep The Philippines’ OGP Action Plan, for its part, states (page 4): “The proposed Freedom of Information Act, the Administration of which has already been submitted to Congress upon instruction of the President, is a critical component of this [Public Access to Information] Initiative.” Since the brief Palace gesture to get the bill filed as part of its media campaign against then-Chief Justice Corona, FOI appears to have been forgotten. Will the Aquino administration deliver on this key symbol and instrument of government

RTVM

transparency? CenSEI writer-analyst Pia Rufino concludes in her Feb. 27-March 4 story on the bill: “the apparent transparency of the Aquino administration in conveying its misgivings about pending FOI legislation — and its careful consultation with various groups in fashioning its own version — gives us reason to look forward to an FOI law in the near future.” That’s one more expectation to meet, among so many more now and yet to come, for the presidency of Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III.

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NEWS ON THE NET Nation

House sets critical vote on RH bill House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte has set August 7 as the date for a critical vote on the controversial Reproductive Health Bill. The vote will be a choice between cutting off or continuing further debate on the bill, which would determine whether the bill can proceed to be voted on or whether further debate is still needed. President Benigno Aquino III urged the lawmakers to approve the proposed law on reproductive health and responsible parenthood measures. On the other hand, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines began calling on Catholic Filipinos to prepare for masses and protests to show their opposition to the bill.

PNP intensifies hunt for 'Big Five' The Philippine National Police intensifies its manhunt for the top five most wanted fugitives in the Philippines. The "Big Five" include former-Army general Jovito Palparan, former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother Coron Mayor Mario Reyes, Dinagat Island Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr., and Globe Asiatique's Delfin Lee. The five are considered by the PNP as "high value target of police operations" hence the PNP has set up tracker units to find and arrest them. Palparan was charged with kidnapping and illegal detention in 2006 of two UP students. The

Reyes brothers are wanted for the murder of broadcaster Gerry Ortega, while Ecleo has been convicted of parricide. Lee and cohorts at Globe Asiatique are facing charges of syndicated estafa for the alleged double sale of properties in Globe Asiatique projects.

Body screens chief justice bets The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) wrapped up its public interviews of nominees for the position of Chief Justice on Friday, July 27. Twentytwo nominees had been scheduled to be interviewed beginning July 24, but two nominees were disqualified for their failure to submit the required documentary requirements on time. Interviewed were Supreme Court Associate Justices Arturo D. Brion, Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr., Antonio T. Carpio, Teresita J. Leonardo-de Castro, Ma. Lourdes P. A. Sereno and Roberto A. Abad, Andres D. Bautista, Soledad M. Cagampang-de Castro, human rights lawyer Jose Manuel I. Diokno, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Teresita J. Herbosa, Solicitor General Francis H. Jardeleza, lawyer Maria Carolina Katrina T. Legarda, Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations chairman Cesar A. Villanueva, former UP law dean Raul C. Pangalangan, lawyer Rafael A. Morales, retired judge Manuel Dj Siyangco Jr., former San Juan congressman and executive secretary Ronaldo B. Zamora, and former government corporate counsel Amado D. Valdez. The JBC will vote on July 30 to determine its short list of nominees,

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despite the pull-out of Congressman Niel Tupas and Senator Francis Escudero following the Supreme Court ruling that Congress should have only one vote in the council. The two solons will not vote Monday, leaving seven members of the JBC to perform their mandate. It will take selection by at least four members to put a nominee on the short list that the council will present to President Benigno Aquino III.

PNoy snubs FOI bill, human rights issues in 3rd SONA President Benigno S. Aquino III delivered his third State of the Nation Address on Monday - his longest so far. His longest SONA began with his memories of the martial law days and his issues against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her administration, but the remainder of the speech failed to touch on more important national concerns, according to his critics. His own ally, Rep. Lorenzo Tañada, and Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño wondered why the President failed to take on the Freedom of Information Bill, while the Alliance of Concerned Teachers questioned the absence of a stand against human rights violations. The labor party Migrante said that there was no mention about overseas Filipino workers. Senator Ferdinand (“Bongbong”) Marcos Jr. doubted the President’s assertion of a lower crime rate and unemployment reduction in the absence of any mention of his administration’s efforts at job creation.

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The Squeeze in Rare Earths China’s restrictions on its rare earth exports is compelling other countries to start looking for other sources of rare earths By Jerome Balinton

STRATEGY POINTS Rare earths are highly valuable in ‘green’ technology-applications and in advanced commercial and military applications Contrary to their name, rare earths are fairly abundant, but they still have to be found in sufficient concentrations to justify mining China currently has a virtual monopoly on rare earths primarily because of extensive government support in the 1970s and 1980s enabling Chinese producers to price nonChinese competitors out of the market

he earth’s crust is abundant with rare earth elements. As far back as the 1950s, rare earths have become critical components of a large assortment of advanced commercial and military technologies that are, thus far, making human activities more productive than ever. Commercially, rare earths are found mostly in communications and electronics applications, such as flat-screen televisions, mobile phones, and computer accessories. They are also used in refining petroleum products. And now that countries are mitigating the adverse effects of climate change, rare earths are important components in "green" or "clean" technologies. Some basic innovations in this regard are lithium batteries for electric cars, solar panels, magnets for wind-turbine generators, and compact fluorescent light bulbs. According to “Rare Earth Elements: The Global Supply Chain,” a June 8, 2012 Congressional Research Service paper by Marc Humphries, world demand for rare earth elements, currently

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The squeeze in rare earths

estimated to be 136,000 tons a year, could rise to at least 185,000 tons annually by 2015. Depending on who you want to believe, China is said to have anywhere from 23% to 50% of the world’s reserves, currently estimated to be 110 million metric tons, but regardless of its reserve position, but produces over 90% of the world’s rare earth output. The U.S. has about 13% of the world’s rare earths reserves, but is entirely dependent on imports because of their low cost. Other countries with known rare earth reserves include Australia, Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Malaysia, and Malawi. Also, Canada is said to have significant rare earth potential. China has been cutting rare earths production and exports since 2006, as reported in a July 2010 Bloomberg story. In June, it issued a white paper on its rare earth industry, acknowledging

that poor regulation caused environmental damage practices and promising a cleanup and a crackdown on illegal mines, as reported in the New York Times. However, the NYT piece also discussed concerns that the white paper was just a justification for continuing export restrictions and forcing rare earth companies to move their operations to China, in light of a case jointly filed at the World Trade Organization in March by the U.S., the European Union, and Japan. China, the largest producer and consumer of rare earths. Presently, China produces about 97% of the world’s rare earths, and dominates the capacity to process these elements, Lee Levkowitz states in his November 2010 research titled, “China’s Rare Earths Industry and its Role in the International Market.”

What are rare earth elements? Congressional Research Service paper, “Rare Earth Elements: The Global Supply Chain,” by Marc Humphries, and the July 2011 U.S. Geological Services report, “Rare Earth Elements – End Use and Recyclability,” by Thomas Goonan, provide a good introduction to rare earths. There are 17 rare earth elements on the Periodic Table. The first 15 elements begin with atomic number 57 (lanthanum) and extend through element number 71 (lutetium); two other elements, yttrium and scandium, have similar properties. Rare earths are not actually rare, but are found in low concentrations in the earth’s crust. The economics of locating and retrieving them are challenging. Rare earths are divided into two groups: light rare earths (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium) and heavy rare earths (europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium).

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Rare earth defense-related applications include: • Fin actuators in missile guidance and control systems, controlling the direction of the missile; • Disk-drive motors installed in aircraft, tanks, missile systems, and command and control centers; • Lasers for enemy mine detection, interrogators, underwater mines, and countermeasures; • Satellite communications, radar, and sonar on submarines and surface ships, and; • Optical equipment and speakers. Rare earth commercial applications include: • Catalyst used in cracking petroleum products • Glass • Metallurgy (excluding battery alloy) • Phosphors used in cathode ray tube displays, fluorescent lamps, and other applications that require color in the light exhibited • Ceramics • Neodymium-iron-boron magnets • Battery alloy

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13 China became the world’s largest exporter of rare earth elements in the 1980s, after its lowerpriced exports forced U.S. producers out of the market. Mining firms preferred to operate in China due to lower labor costs and lower environmental standards. Companies preferred the lower-priced products from Chinese mining firms or Sino-foreign joint ventures. Rare earth mining in the U.S. declined and was eventually shut down, particularly Molycorp’s Mountain Pass facility located near Nevada border in the Mojave Desert of Southeastern California in 2002.

During the same period, production from other countries declined almost 60%, to about 16,000 tons from 44,000 tons. Tse said that as a result, world production increased just over 150%, to almost 91,000 tons from about 60,000 tons between 1990 and 2000. Since 2000, world and Chinese production have continued to increase; by 2009, world production increased 45% to about 132,000 tons, and Chinese production increased 77% to 129,000 tons. Production from other countries decreased to about 3,000 tons in

Rare Earth Elements World Production and Reserves, 2010 and 2011 World MIne Production and Reserves: United States

Mine production 2010

2011

Australia Brazil

Reserves

550

13,000,000

550

48,000

1,600,000

China

130,000

55,000,000

India

2,800

3,000

3,100,000

Other countries

N/A

22,000,000

Commonwealth of Independent States Malaysia

N/A

World total (rounded)

133,000

N/A

130,000

19,000,000

30,000

110,000,000

Table from US Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2012

Levkowitz cites the U.S. General Accounting Office in saying that it could take the U.S. up to 15 years to rebuild its domestically sourced rare earth supply chain. According to him, even after discovering a potential site for rare earth elements, it can take up to 10 years before a company can begin mining for rare earths.

2009. According to Tse, the volume of China’s rare earth output as a percentage of total world output increased to more than 90% in 2008, from 27% in 1990. During the past 15 years, China has supplied more than 80% of the world’s rare earths as concentrates, intermediate products, and chemicals.

According to “China’s Rare Earth Industry,” a 2011 paper by Pui-Kwan Tse for the US Geological Survey, China’s Ministry of Land and Resources reported in 2009 that China has 18.6 million metric tons of rare earth reserves. According to Tse, from 1990 to 2000, China’s production increased over 450%, from about 16,000 metric tons to 73,000 metric tons.

The case against China. The case jointly filed in March by the U.S., European Union, and Japan with the World Trade Organization against China’s rare-earth export restrictions and tariffs has led to the formation of a panel of judges to investigate the case, as reported in Bloomberg on July 23. The panel has six months to issue its findings, which can be appealed.

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The squeeze in rare earths

(In a June 21 blog entry on Forbes.com, Jack Perkowski found the timing of the W.T.O. case curious, primarily because according to him, market forces are already correcting the supply imbalance. Perkowski cites the news of the modernization and re-opening of Molycorp’s Mountain Pass mine beginning in July, as well as a U.S. Department of Defense study in March that says that the U.S. military, now almost

Hanoi to improve extraction and processing of the rare earth materials. According to the Nature report, Japan has also launched numerous government-funded projects to develop technologies for recycling rare-earth elements from used high-tech components, and to find other materials that could be used as substitutes. The Nature report also recounted that University of Tokyo researchers reported in June that they

GLOBAL RARE EARTH PRODUCTION TRENDS, 1956-2008

According to Tse, the volume of China’s rare-earth output as a percentage of total world output increased to more than 90% in 2008 from 27% in 1990. During the past 15 years, China has supplied more than 80% of the world’s rare earths as concentrates, intermediate products, and chemicals Source: “China’s Rare Earth Industry,” by Pui-Kwan Tse, U.S. Geological Survey, 2011, p. 3

completely dependent on Chinese rare earth imports, will be able to rely on domestic sources for majority of its demand by 2013. )

have discovered sea-floor sediments in Japanese waters that contain an estimated 6.8 million tons of rare-earth elements.

Other countries looking for their own reserves. With the continuing squeeze on the supply of rare earth elements, other countries are now looking for their own rare earth reserves, with some doing their own exploration and others going into partnerships.

In late April, Reuters reported that Japan and Kazakhstan will jointly build a plant in Northern Kazakhstan to produce dysprosium, a rare earth used in the construction of engines for electric and hybrid vehicles as well as other electronic products.

Nature reported on July 13 that Japan and Vietnam have launched a joint research center in

Meanwhile, according to a February New York Times report, Germany signed a “strategic

The

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The squeeze in rare earths

partnership” with Kazakhstan that guarantees German companies the right to search for and mine rare earths and other raw materials in Kazakhstan in exchange for technological and other investments. The NYT report also said that Germany had already signed a similar agreement with Mongolia in October 2011. Like Kazakhstan, Mongolia is said to have vast untapped reserves of rare earth elements. According to a May report in Real Earth Investing News, Canada is also in a “very enviable position” in the search for rare earths to counter China’s monopoly. According to an official of the Canada Chamber of Commerce, “Canada has 1.1 billion pounds of rare earths locked in black shale deposits… worth an estimated $206 billion. In addition, several other Canadian mines across the country show great potential,” the report quoted the official as saying. The aforementioned July 13 Nature report also mentioned that India announced on July 4 that it is planning to mine rare-earth minerals from the sea bed of the Central Indian Ocean Basin, using up to four specially commissioned ships. According to an April 15 blog entry by Larry Bell in Forbes, Sweden has declared a Norra Harr heavy rare earth project owned by Tasman Metals, Ltd. to be in its “national interest” under the Swedish Environment Act. For its part, the Philippines is also joining the search for rare earths. According to a June 10 Business World report, the Philippine government has earmarked ₱20 million for rare earth elements development. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau said it has found potential areas to explore and these areas are also close to copper-gold mines. An unidentified bureau official identified Palawan and

Mindanao as the best places to start, in a June 11 report in Malaya. In November 2010, South Korea announced plans to stockpile 76,000 tons of rare earths by 2015 - the equivalent of 10% of global projected production, including new mines now on the drawing board, according to Daniel McGroarty's blog entry on the global rare earths situation for the RealClearWorld global news and commentary site. McGroarty is listed as principal of Carmot Strategic Group, an issues management firm in Washington, D.C. Geology and geo-politics collide. McGroarty’s blog entry discusses the evolution of the rare earths situation using video-game technology. As the world approaches the edge of Rare Earths 1.0 -where either the world’s high-tech economies are going to grind to a halt for lack of rare earths, or the current concern over the Chinese monopoly will stimulate new, non-Chinese supply that will flood the market and overwhelm demand – McGroarty warns of the coming of Rare Earths 2.0, which will be characterized by a new level of complexity, “where geology and geo-politics collide.” Under Rare Earths 2.0, McGroarty maintains that as more rare earth elements are discovered in non-Chinese mines, the market will become more sophisticated in distinguishing between them, which will in turn change the market. He also predicts the private sector will not wait for government studies calling for action, but rather make private deals to secure supply. The difficulty in finding and mining rare earth elements will also result in challenges to existing environmental regulations in developed countries, which is somewhat ironic, given that rare earth elements are needed in otherwise “green” technologies.

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NEWS ON THE NET World

Sansha, China’s new ‘city,’ strengthens country’s foothold in disputed waters Amid territorial disputes with its neighbors, China officially set up the city of Sansha on Yongxing island, off the southernmost province of Hainan. The city administration was created to oversee both the outpost with a population of only 1,000 and the hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of water, where Beijing wants to strengthen its control over disputed islands. The remote island now has a post office, bank, supermarket, and a hospital, and fresh water is delivered by freighter. The Philippines, for its part, filed a diplomatic protest over the establishment of Sansha City prefecture, which also covers other acts like the reported election of a Sansha City mayor. A report on the official government website of China says Xiao Jie, 51, head of the Hainan Provincial Agriculture Department, was elected mayor in the first session of the first Sansha Municipal People's Congress held on Yongxing Island. Vietnam, also a claimant in the disputed islands, protested the move, saying it is a violation of the country’s sovereignty and international law. Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi criticized an election to appoint delegates of the city, declaring China’s actions “invalid.”

The

“inconsistent” because the euro zone was taking “decisive action” to solve the debt crisis.

Standard & Poor’s says UK to keep AAA rating Showing faith in the British economy, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has said the United Kingdom will get to keep its AAA credit rating, reflecting a stable outlook. Despite a slip into recession earlier in 2012, S&P expects the economy to pick up in the second half of this year. Further, the ratings agency said it expected the government to keep budgets tight. The International Monetary Fund had also said that U.K. should slow budget cuts if growth did not recover. Chancellor George Osborne said the stable rating meant the world had confidence that Britain was dealing with its debt. In a statement, S&P said, “In our view, monetary flexibility remains a key credit strength owing to the British pound sterling's role as a global reserve currency.” Early this year, S&P downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries: France, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Malta. The downgrade prompted EU’s economic affairs official Olli Rehn to criticize the decision, saying the move was

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Suu Kyi makes first parliamentary speech After her party’s historic win in Myanmar’s parliamentary elections in April, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivered her first speech in parliament on July 25. She called for laws that will protect the rights of the country’s impoverished ethnic minorities, as well as for an end to discrimination against them as part of the “emergence of genuine democratic country.” Suu Kyi brought to the fore soaring poverty rates in the Chin, Kachin, Shan, and Rakhine states, and noted that protecting minority rights were more than just maintaining ethnic languages and cultures. Myanmar has long faced tensions among ethnic minorities. Human rights organization Amnesty International has accused the country’s security forces and the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists of carrying out targeted attacks on the Rohingya, the Muslim minority group. The bloodiest point in the sectarian conflict happened in June and raised international concern over the fate of the Rohingya in Myanmar. President Thein Sein has said that the solution to ethnic enmity was to either send the Rohingya to a third country or have the United Nations refugee agency look after them.

• July 30-August 5, 2012

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anotechnology is the use of man-made particles of one- to 100-billionths of a meter for industrial or medical applications. Matter can exhibit unusual physical, chemical and biological properties at the nanoscale, different from its behavior at a larger scale. Some nanostructures are stronger, have different magnetic properties, or are better at conducting heat or electricity. They can become more chemically reactive, reflect light better or change color. Nanoscale devices are one hundred to ten thousand times smaller than human cells. For example, hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in red blood cells, is about 5 nanometers in diameter.

Nanotechnology: Small Is Better? By Victoria Fritz

Although few people are aware of it, nanoscale devices and nanotechnology are now used in many consumer products, says Milo Shaffer of the London Centre for Nanotechnology, in an article by Colin Stuart in The Guardian in July 2011. Stuart observed how nanotechnology products have become a big part of our daily lives. â&#x20AC;&#x153;From

THE SIZE OF THINGS

STRATEGY POINTS Nanotechnology has been used to improve many of our everyday products, though few people are aware of it Nanotechnology is exhibiting some potential in the area of cancer research, in disease diagnosis and treatment.

Water

Glucose

Antibody

Bacteria

Nanodevices

With the new technology's potential applications in food processing, electronics, and medicine, safety issues from continued exposure have still to be defined and investigated

Virus

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Nanodevices: Nanopores Dendrimers Nanotubes Quantum dots Nanoshells

Nanotechnology: Small is better?

the clothes and sunglasses you wear to computer hard drives and even cleaning products, nanotechnology – often inspired by the natural world – plays a big part in the manufacture of familiar products.” Mimicking the natural world. Nanoscale structures are not new. In the natural world, they have been occurring since cellular evolution, or for about 3 billion years. Human attempts at mimicking have been going on over a shorter span of time, i.e., just over 20 years. Stuart cited Julian Vincent, a Mechanical Engineering professor at the University of Bath, who explained this phenomenon as such. It is their extraordinary capabilities, such as the structure of geckos’ foot hairs that allow them to cling upside down, or mussels’ ability to attach themselves on wet surfaces, that scientists are trying to mimic. Nature is eminently superior in its functions, with many things to teach us, noted an article promoting nanotechnology on the German Federal Government’s site. For example, the surface of lotus leaves, cabbage, nasturtiums, and bananas have a coating that makes them

IN NANOMETERS Cancer cell

A period

Tennis ball

seem impermeable to liquids. Upon closer look, there are actually tiny knobs on the surface. In effect, only two or three percent of the total surface area comes in contact with the liquid. As the liquid runs off, it takes with it any dirt that might be clinging to the surface. On a shirt, this technology can make them virtually safe from liquids accidentally poured on it.

The lotus effect: Water drops on a nasturtium leaf A long list of consumer products already utilizing nanotechnology. Since the start of basic and applied research, more than a thousand products are now officially listed as having used nanotechnology, although this list is by no means comprehensive. This list includes refrigerators, car polish, television display coating, anti-bacterial cooking and eating utensils, canola cooking oil, slimming chocolate shakes, stuffed teddy bears, floor cleaners and air purifiers, luggage items that weigh less, and paint products. A list of commercial applications of nanotechnology by category is available at the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies site. The list is by no means complete. Many more nanotechnology products are already in the market, though they may not be labeled as such.

Source: National Cancer Institute Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer

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Different products are seen to improve in specific ways by nanotechnology. For example, batteries will become less flammable through the use of less flammable electrode material.

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19 One battery model already in the market for years has become more efficient and needs less charging time, uses new nanoparticles to prevent liquid electrolytes from reducing during battery recharging. Their shelf life has increased due to using nanomaterials to separate liquids from solid electrodes when not in use, preventing lowlevel discharge.

to eat less. The feature also discussed nanoencapsulation, an improvement over existing micro-encapsulation technology, which involves encapsulating nutrients in structures engineered to break down and release their contents at specific states in the digestive process.

(The feature also noted the reluctance of food manufacturing giants Unilever, Kraft, In fabrics, nano-sized particles or fibers have and Nestle to discuss nanotechnology in food made them lightweight while making them processing, as attempts to interview them were water- and stain-repellent. met with short responses. Nestle and Kraft said that they did not do research on nanotechnology Many electronic products, for computers, at the moment. Unilever also said it did not television sets and mobile devices, have been use nanotechnology in any of its food products developed using nanotechnology, in order to at the moment, although the research director capability, reduce did say, “it was looking weight and seriously at potential increase energy In fabrics, nano-sized particles applications.”) efficiency. It or fibers have made them offers a way to Nanotechnology and lightweight while making them the environment. increase memory water- and stain-repellent storage capacity in In efforts to save a significant way, the environment, moving from mere nanotechnology has also gigabytes to terabytes. come to play a role. It can improve air quality by enhancing the performance of catalysts Food and food packaging are always of great (already in use) in transforming car or factory interest, and they have also been touched emissions into harmless gases. Nanostructures this new technology. Currently, clay membranes are being developed to separated nanocomposites are already being used to carbon dioxide from factory emissions. To provide a barrier to oxygen and carbon dioxide address water pollution, nanoparticles are being in lightweight bottles, cartons and packaging developed to convert industrial water pollution films. Plastic food containers are now embedded (such as certain cleaning solvents) and make with silver nanoparticles that will kill bacteria them harmless. Other nanoparticles are targeted from material previously stored there. Given for use in desalinization and removing virus cells the newness of the technology, there have not from water. been many food items that listed as using the technology. Nonetheless, here are some food Nanotechnology in cancer research. items that have made the list of the Project on Given the vast potential of nanotechnology, Emerging Nanotechnologies’ list. one emerging area of high interest is cancer diagnosis and treatment. A Sept. 2010 Reuters feature by Kate Kelland on nanotechnology applications in food reported Nanoscale devices, at smaller than 50 that scientists at Britain’s Institute of Food nanometers in size, can easily enter most cells, Research found an “unexpected synergy” that with those smaller than 20 nanometers able helped break down fat and which could lead to to move out of blood vessels as they circulate new ways of slowing digestion and getting people through the body. At the nanoscale, the

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elements’ surface to area ratio is dramatically increased, and this can change their physical properties. These physical properties include colloidal (or gelatinous) properties, solubility and catalytic capacity, which are very useful in areas of biotechnology, such as bioremediation and drug delivery. In the treatment of cancer, a Technology Review article published in May explained that a nanoparticle carrying a drug compound could selectively target tumor cells and avoid healthy ones, through attaching antibodies or other molecules that can identify target cells. By avoiding healthy cells, patients are spared many harmful and undesirable side effects. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a nanosensor test for the drug Coumadin, which can be adapted to detect important cancer biomarkers, such as prostate specific antigen (PSA). A clinical study using human tissue samples is being conducted to monitor very low levels of PSA (well beyond the sensitivity of conventional PSA tests) to determine if these readings can provide early warnings of disease recurrence. Safety issues. With nanotechnology being considered for food processing and medical treatment, questions of safety are bound to arise. The United States has created the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) as a sort of Grand Central Station for all government agencies engaged in nanotechnology research. Its 2011 Environment, Health, and Safety Research Strategy provides guidelines for risk assessment and management, among other things. It observes that “the same unique properties that characterize nanomaterials enabling new applications also carry potential risks to human health and the environment.” The strategy is grounded on the principles of risk assessment and product life cycle analysis. These concepts are further detailed in the

The

Nanomedical projects The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) has prioritized the development of nanotechnologies for nanomedical applications. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has earmarked US$144.3 million over five years for an ambitious and extensive project called “Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer,” which funds several Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNEs). This program supports various research projects in the areas of diagnosis, devices, biosensors, microfluids and therapeutics. The CCNE teams have a multidisciplinary character, involving scientists and engineers cooperating with cancer biologists and technologists, and are spearheading efforts in developing nanotechnology tools for clinical oncology. At present, many of the studies are just on limited trials, but all teams are cooperating to more quickly move their efforts into human clinical trials. Although much success has been documented in the laboratory, a program’s success is ultimately measured by bringing the research discoveries to the clinic. Many nanotechnology-enabled diagnostic and therapeutic agents are now in clinical trials, with many more nearing that goal. At the University of California San Diego, the CCNE has developed a chemically engineered adenovirus nanoparticle to deliver a molecule that stimulates the immune system, and this now undergoing Phase I clinical trials. Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia have received injections of the virus. Results include significant reductions in leukemia cell counts and reductions in the size of all lymph nodes and spleen. One patient treated went into complete remission. Another clinical trial is being done in California for a cyclodextrin-based nanoparticle that encapsulated a small interfering agent that shuts down a key enzyme in cancer cells. Its safety (Phase 1 trial) is being tested on patients who have become resistant to other chemotherapies. Nanotechnology has also been used in Washington University’s CCNE to develop an MRI contrast agent that binds to blood vessels associated with early tumor development. Phase 1 clinical trials are being conducted to test its use in the early detection of cancer.

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21 following research categories: 1. Nanomaterial Measurement Infrastructure 2. Human Exposure Assessment 3. Human Health 4. Environment 5. Risk Assessment and Risk Management Methods 6. Informatics and Modeling; ethical, legal and societal implications of nanotechnology The strategy is in place; however, it was not indicated on the NNI site if studies on safety are already ongoing, or if there are already any results from these studies. In “Nanotechnology Safety Concerns Reviewed,” a 2007 study funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and published in the Oxford Journals, findings showed that the risk to human health was low in most cases, even as it was acknowledged that nanomaterial safety data are limited The data demonstrate “the ability of the lung, gastrointestinal tract, and skin to act as a significant barrier to the systemic exposure of many nanomaterials.” In addition, toxicity appears to be low. However, the potential pulmonary toxicity of select nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, “is significant.” Carbon nanotubes are still in the development stage and pose little risk at present, but as a super-strong, super-lightweight material, they have many potential uses in daily life. If carbon nanotubes find their way to everyday items – e.g., TVs and computer screens -human daily exposure would be inevitable. The study called for a better understanding of exposure to further evaluate risk, and for

cautious development and implementation of nanotechnology until exposures, hazard and environmental life cycles have been more clearly defined. More study needed on toxicological effects. British website Medical News Today, in a May 2012 article, cited concerned parties who said that while research is taking on lightning speed, not enough is being done to study the toxicological effects. It pointed out the fact that nanoparticles are exceptionally small and mobile, enabling them to penetrate cell membranes of the lining of the gut, with a potential access to the brain. Another concern is the solubility and persistence of nanomaterials. In the case of insoluble materials, if they can’t break down and degrade, will they accumulate and damage the organs? Yet another worry is the highly reactive character of nanoparticles, given their high surface area to mass ratio. This could trigger unknown chemical reactions, or by bonding with toxins, allow these toxins to enter cells they would otherwise have no access to. One concerned party is the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Lords of the British Parliament. In a January 2010 press notice, it pointed out a lack of transparency in the food industry’s research into the uses of nanotechnology. Being secretive will likely bring the negative reactions that the food industry is trying to avoid, it warned. The Committee’s overall

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conclusion is that nobody was giving enough priority to researching the safety of nanotechnology. Concerns about cancer. In April 2007, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) reported research presented at that year’s annual meeting that suggests nanoparticles could cause cancer. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts studied how two different types of nanoparticles could cause DNA damage in one line of breast cancer cells. They focused on silica and C60 fullerene nanoparticles because they are commonly used commercially – in electronics, textiles and sporting goods. They found increases in DNA damage. DNA damage could potentially lead to mutations and ultimately increase the risk of cancer. Fullerenes are known to attract electrons and cause generation of damaging free radicals. The researchers lamented the fact that “a very small portion of research on nanoparticles is focused on health and safety risks.” Some nanoparticles can be more toxic than others, though research is again needed to determine specific toxicity of each type of nanoparticle. In cancer treatment, nanotubes are used as carriers for drugs. In a possible ironic twist, the drug carrier could prove to be cancer-causing itself. In a study by Liang et al, published in RSC Publishing, a website that features chemical science

PREVIOUS PAG

The

articles, it was shown that modifying the carbon surface of nanotubes, making them more soluble, have been shown to reduce their toxicity. In the same way, fullerenes can also be modified to reduce free radical formation and make them less toxic. But as we keep tweaking these manmade solutions, other types of toxicity may again form. Tentative guidelines starting to be formed. In April this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued tentative guidelines for food and cosmetic companies that use or will use nanoparticles, as reported in The Huffington Post. The draft guidelines are not final. It is a work in progress, allowing for emerging technologies to “introduce issues that warrant additional or different evaluation during a safety assessment of a food substance.” For instance, nano-engineered food products may have altered bioavailability and could raise new safety issues (Ref. 13). It noted an ongoing debate on how to test the safety of nano-engineered food substances. The draft guidelines call for guidance and extrapolation from data on traditionally manufactured food items on a case-to-case basis. Safety assessments should be based on the nanometer version of the food substance. Such traits as particle size, surface area, aggregation/agglomeration, or shape may affect absorption distribution, metabolism and excretion, and the overall safety of the nanoengineered food substance. The German government is also exerting efforts to study the safety of nanoparticles, as stated in its federal government website. The NanoCare Project (2006-9) was a joint

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research undertaking between research facilities and industry, to “investigate systematically the human-toxicological effects and interactions during the production, processing, and application of synthetic nanomaterials.” It developed standard procedures to study effects which could be specific to nanomaterials. The project was limited to three groups of nanomaterials: industrial carbon black; metal oxides; barium sulfate and strontium carbonate salts.

titanium dioxide can influence the health of a cell only at very high concentrations, but they promote the generation of free radicals. In an in-vivo (animal) study, test concentrations do not trigger any pathological responses in the lung. Inflammation did occur in higher concentrations, though this subsided in a few days. Some important findings of the project include defining threshold levels, below which no effects can be detected, and more effective methods of measurement.

From a related research project, the European Union’s Nanoderm Project, it shared the finding that the nanostructured titanium dioxide in sunscreen products is unable to penetrate healthy skin. In its own in-vitro or laboratory study, NanoCare found that

The U.S. National Cancer Institute suggests that most nanomaterials will likely prove harmless. But testing, as mentioned earlier, is on a caseto-case basis. Until a certain nanomaterial is proven harmless with certainty, the best way is to proceed with caution in its handling.

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NEWS ON THE NET Business

Farm group to harness e-marketing system The Vegetable Industry Council of Southern Mindanao is launching next month an Internet-based marketing system to allow sellers and buyers to interact and make transactions seamless and faster. Ray Acain, council president, said the e-marketing system will provide information to allow buyers to place their orders, will offer farmers information on where to plant vegetables, what areas need big supply of vegetables, and information on the movement of prices in the market. The smart marketing will also eliminate middlemen who are influential in the fixing of retail prices. The launching of the system will coincide with the Mindanao Vegetable Congress on Aug. 13-14. This event intends to discuss issues concerning vegetable production, including marketing and access to financing. Moving north, the National Tobacco Administration said it is preparing a ₱165-million agribusiness project that would provide alternative livelihood project to some 7,000 tobacco farmers in Ilocos region, Abra, La Union, and Pangasinan. The project entails building an AgriPinoy Tobacco Farmers Food Processing and Trading Center and a contract growing scheme involving hogs and poultry wherein the government will provide production inputs. NTA will also train tobacco farmers in hog fattening and broiler growing. The project shall also provide an alternative marketing system and business model to increase tobacco farmers’ purchasing and bargaining power, and develop

The

farmers’ capabilities to manage dynamic rural enterprises.

PDIC OK’s PNBAllied merger The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) approved the merger of Lucio Tan-owned Philippine National Bank and Allied Bank. PNB said it received on July 25 an advice from PDIC granting consent to the proposed merger of PNB and Allied Bank. After the merger, PNB – the surviving entity – will have 650 branches and total assets amounting to over ₱500 billion, making it the fifth-largest bank in the country in terms of assets. The union of the two banks can fully proceed once the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Securities Exchange Commission give their approval. In other finance developments, Security Bank started Wednesday last week issuing seven-year long-term negotiable certificates of deposits (LTNCDs) eyeing to raise at least ₱3 billion from the securities. In a disclosure to the stock exchange, Security Bank said the LTCDNs will be available until Aug. 8 in minimum denominations of ₱10,000 and minimum investments size of ₱50,000. Maturing in August 2019, the LTNCDs carry an indicative interest rate of 5.5%; the final interest rate

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will be set prior to the end of the offer period. Interest payments will be paid quarterly. The P3-billion target is ‘subject-to-upsize’ because Security Bank eyes as much as P5 billion from the LTCDNs.

Fewer out-of-work Filipinos hunting for jobs The numbers of unemployed Filipino who did not actively look for work went down by 5.49 percent to 1.43 million from 1.51 million in 2010, recent data from released by the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) shows. BLES said unemployment rates have remained in the single digits since 2005. Unemployment went down from 8.0% in 2006 to its latest lowest point at 7.0% in 2011. “This only means that either our labor market is improving or there are more job opportunities available,” said Rene Ofreneo, director for the Center for Labor Justice. Despite this development, unemployment in the country was said the highest in January 2012 compared with six other Asian countries which also reported stronger economic growth in 2011, BLES said in a May 31 Business World report. The total number of unemployed persons in the country reached 2.9 million in January 2012, or 7.2% of the 40.3 million Filipinos in the labor force. This was lower than the 7.4% unemployment rate recorded in the same period last year. The Philippines’ unemployment rate topped those of Indonesia (6.6%), Malaysia (3.1%), Singapore (2.0%), Thailand (0.4%), China (4.1%), and South Korea (3.7%), the BLES said.

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Report Online hacking inci

LinkedIn (social network for professionals)

6.5 million passwords leaked; although these are encrypted, skilled attackers may still be able to crack them

eHarmony (dating website)

About 1.5 million passwords stolen by the same hacker responsible for the LinkedIn breach

JUNE Last.fm (music streaming site)

After news of LinkedIn and eHarmony attacks broke, Last. fm announced it was investigating a similar security breach; evidence suggests the breach occurred months before it was finally reported, claims tech magazine GigaOM

Protecting Your Passwords

With high-profile security lapses occurring more often, it might be time to think about how to protect your online e-mail, bank, and other user accounts from security breaches By Tanya L. Mariano

STRATEGY POINTS Millions of passwords, as well as the security lapses of Web companies, were exposed by the hacking of Yahoo, NVIDIA, Formspring, LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm in the past two months The recent spate of hacking cases highlights the need for users to choose stronger passwords Websites should also implement more stringent security measures, such as password encryption and â&#x20AC;&#x153;salting,â&#x20AC;? in order to protect their users from future attacks

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Protecting your passwords 26

dents June-July 2012 Yahoo! Voices (content contributor network)

Formspring (social questionand-answer site)

Exposed log in credentials of almost 450,000 users and a security lapse on Yahoo’s part: usernames and passwords were stored in plaintext, unencrypted

About 420,000 password hashes (which means they are still encrypted and are harmless until someone cracks them) posted online

JULY NVIDIA Developer Zone (the company’s online forum for developers) Passwords of up to 400,000 users compromised; a group of hackers calling themselves “The Apollo Project” takes credit for the attack

Sources: Hackers post 450K credentials pilfered from Yahoo; Hackers take credit for NVIDIA breach, claim “shop” was also compromised; LinkedIn: Taking steps to protect our members; 6.5 million encrypted LinkedIn passwords leaked online; Urgent: Change your Formspring password; LinkedIn hacker ‘also stole 1.5m passwords from dating site eHarmony’; Last.fm suspected password breach weeks ago

you’re not one of the millions of people whose usernames and passwords have been compromised in a recent spate of online hacking incidents, don’t pat yourself on the back just yet. The rise in hacking cases of late tells us three things: • There are able and determined hackers who will keep doing what they do; • Even established Web companies can be guilty of inadequate user data protection, and; • Many people, despite repeated warnings, still use insecure passwords. The past two months alone saw a number of prominent websites breached by hackers, the most recent being Yahoo’s content contributor network, Voices, which exposed the usernames and passwords of 450,000 users. What’s more

The

disconcerting is that Yahoo allegedly stored the passwords as plain text instead of encrypting them, a major security flaw, reports CNN. Also hacked in July were NVIDIA, best known for manufacturing the graphics processing unit called GeForce, and the social question-andanswer site Formspring. In June, a hacker leaked online 6.5 million passwords from professional social network LinkedIn and 1.5 million from dating site eHarmony. Although the passwords were encrypted, neither company employed “salting,” an additional layer of protection that inserts random characters into passwords before they are hashed, making decryption less efficient. Music streaming site Last.fm also announced in June that they were investigating a security breach, but Bobbie Johnson of online tech magazine GigaOM suspects that the breach may have happened months before but remained undetected.

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27 While it’s beyond the control of users how websites safeguard log-in credentials, it can’t hurt to strengthen your passwords and make it harder for hackers to crack them. Here are a few tips on how to do just that. Do not use personal information. This is one of the most frequently shared advices around. Incorporating personal details into your password makes the password easier to recall but also easier to guess. Security expert George Shaffer, in a compilation of widely circulated dos and don’ts, mentions not using your name or the names of immediate family members, initials, birthdays, the type of car you drive, addresses, hobbies, and phone numbers, among other things. Avoid words that can be found in the dictionary. Hackers usually try to crack passwords through three different methods, according to an article on the Microsoft Business Hub website: • Brute force, in which a program tries to guess your password by trying every combination

of letters, numbers, and keyboard characters; • Dictionary attacks, which tries dictionary words as well as common number and letter combinations, and; • Social engineering, which may sound complicated but actually just refers to physical attempts to acquire a password, such as posing as an Internet service provider employee and soliciting someone’s password to “test the service.” Because of the second method, passwords that contain actual words or common alphanumeric patterns become relatively easy to crack. Mix symbols, punctuation marks, and uppercase and lowercase letters. In a blog post entitled, “How I’d hack your weak passwords,” John Pozadzides, CEO of Web analytics firm Woopra, suggests randomly throwing in capital letters and substituting digits for letters that look similar.

The World’s Worst Passwords If there is a silver lining to all this, it is that the exposure of people’s passwords gives valuable insight into the security practices of Internet users. For one, it reveals that many still choose some of the most insecure passwords imaginable despite news of massive security breaches over the years. In 2011, password management provider SplashData released its list of “25 Worst Passwords of the Year” based on an analysis of millions of stolen passwords posted by hackers online. The most popular? “password.” The top 10 are: 1. password 2. 123456 3. 12345678 4. qwerty 5. abc123

6. monkey 7. 1234567 8. letmein 9. trustno1 10. dragon

And with the recent breach of Yahoo and LinkedIn, it doesn’t look like people have learned their lesson. Swedish IT security expert Anders Nilsson used a password analyzer call Pipal to examine the leaked Yahoo passwords and came up with a list of the ten most common: 1. 123456 2. password 3. welcome 4. ninja 5. abc123

6. 123456789 7. 12345678 8. sunshine 9. princess 10. qwerty

Passwords exposed in the LinkedIn breach were not much better, and ArsTechnica reports that some even used the passwords “f*ckmylife,” “ihatemyjob,” “iwantanewjob,” “nobama,” “linkedinblows,” and “strongpassword.”

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Protecting your passwords

Security technologist Bruce Schneier gives similar advice. In an article posted on Wired, Schneier discusses how a tool called Password Recovery Toolkit, or PRTK, tries to crack passwords by running tests with words from simple dictionaries to more complex phonetic pattern dictionaries and lists of numerical patterns. Citing the findings of Eric Thompson of software provider Access Data that most passwords are made up of a root and an appendage, Schneier recommends choosing something that does not fall into any of the categories of dictionaries used by tools like PRTK, mixing upper and lowercase letters in the middle of the root, dropping the appendage in the middle of the root or using two roots separated by an appendage in the middle, and putting numbers and symbols in the middle of the root. Consider using passphrases. Inspired by a comment left on Schneier’s article, Slate technology columnist Farhad Manjoo suggests coming up with “an original but memorable

phrase” and turning it into an acronym by taking the first letters of the words in the phrase. He also advises making the acronym more complex by using numbers, symbols, and uppercase letters. For instance, the phrase “I like to eat bagels at the airport” turns into “Ilteb@ta,”and “My first Cadillac was a real lemon so I bought a Toyota” becomes “M1stCwarlsIbaT.” Longer passwords are more secure. The longer the password, the more time it takes to crack it. In the following table, Pozadzides presents estimates on how long it would take to “to generate every possible combination of passwords for a given number of characters,” after which “it’s just a matter of time before the computer runs through all the possibilities – or gets shut down trying.” These estimates are based on the assumption that the hacker has a relatively fast computer and Internet connection, and that the password does not contain any word from the dictionary. Pozadzides notes how, for an eight-character password, just adding a symbol or capitalizing

Processing time for possible password combinations Password Length

All Characters

Only Lowercase Characters

3 characters

0.86 second

0.02 second

4 characters

1.36 minutes

0.046 second

6 characters

8.51 days

5.15 minutes

5 characters

2.15 hours

7 characters

2.21 years

8 characters

11 characters

12 characters

13 characters

14 characters

2.23 hours

2.10 centuries

9 characters

10 characters

11.9 seconds

2.42 days

20 millenniums

2.07 months

180,365 millenniums

1.16 centuries

1,899 millenniums

4.48 years

17,184,705 millenniums

3.03 millenniums

154,640,721,434 millenniums

2,046 millenniums

1,627,797,068 millenniums

78.7 millenniums

How long it would take a hacker with a reasonably fast computer and Internet connection to generate a list of “every possible combination of passwords for a given number of characters,” assuming the password does not contain dictionary words Source: “How I’d hack your weak passwords,” from the blog of John Pozadzides

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29 one letter raises the processing time from 2.4 days to 2.1 centuries. Lie when answering security questions. You may have created a strong password, but that’s useless if the answer to your security is something easily obtainable. PCWorld magazine suggests coming up with a second password that is as complex as the first and using this as the answer to the security question. For instance, when asked for your mother’s maiden name, provide “Miss 7#BrE_r” instead of her real name. Exercise caution when using public PCs. If you can’t avoid using a public computer, the same PCWorld article recommends rebooting the PC, if possible, and installing a copy of the Knoppix bootable operating system so you would not have to use the computer’s programs, which may pose a security threat. It you can’t reboot the computer, run your own portable applications from a portable drive. Also, scan the machine for malicious software using a portable antivirus program and change the passwords to the accounts you accessed via the public computer as soon as possible. Do not use the same password for multiple accounts. Everyone knows this, but few follow it despite knowing the risks. A survey of 26 participants from the University of Auckland found that, as users accumulate more accounts, the tendency to reuse passwords also increases. Most respondents reported reusing passwords because it is easy to remember even though they are aware of the risks of doing so. Writes the researchers, “This suggests that ‘password overload’ is a major contributor to unsafe password practice.”

High-profile security breaches over the years This infographic from backgroundcheck.org plots some of the worst data breaches from 2005 to 2011. Majority of cases resulted from hacking, while others involved the use of malware, social tactics, privileged misuse, and physical attacks. Mentioned in the graphic is the 2011 hacking of Sony’s PlayStation Network, in which 77 million accounts were compromised. The network had to go offline for 44 days and Sony spent $170 million to fix the problem. The hacker group called “Lulz Security” claimed responsibility for the attack. Also included is the Gawker Media breach in 2010, which a group called “Gnosis” said they did in order to challenge the media company and blog network’s “outright arrogance” towards the hacking community, as well as the 2009 attack on Google which, a year later, Wikileaks revealed to have come from China. Not included in the graphic is the hack on security think tank Stratfor Global Intelligence a day before Christmas in 2011. The hacker collective known as “Anonymous” stole creditcard details and other sensitive information totaling over 200 gigabytes, reports Venture Beat. In a statement Stratfor CEO George Friedman released on their website, he says, “We are fortunate that we have the financial resources and staff commitment to survive the attack. Others might not.”

Another study found similar results. After Gawker and rootkit.com were hacked in 2011, Joseph Bonneau of the University of Cambridge compared the email addresses registered at both

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Protecting your passwords

Source: “Worst IT Security Breaches Debriefed,” backgroundcheck.org

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sites and found 456 pairs. Out of the 456 common users, the researcher was able to crack the passwords for some of the accounts and he estimates that 31% used the same passwords for both sites. This is much higher than the findings of previously published studies, the author notes. If you’re having a hard time remembering your passwords for the different online accounts you’ve amassed over the years, a password manager could come in handy. Use a password manager. Password managers help you organize your passwords typically by storing them in an encrypted file and protecting them with a master key. Almost all will auto-fill web forms with user-defined data, according to PCMag. In the report, the online tech magazine reviewed several options, including paid ones such as Kaspersky Password Manager, Password Genie, and RoboForm, and those available for free like Norton Identity Safe, LastPass, and DashLane. Based on their assessment, DashLane 1.1 and LastPass 2.0 are the best ones around. Web companies should strengthen security measures. The latest hacking cases should serve as a wake-up call not just for users with poor password protection practices, but also complacent companies and other organizations with weak security. Yahoo’s security failings, as outlined by Jason Rhykerd of network security consulting firm SystemExperts, highlights three critical security measures that Internet companies must put in

place: encrypt and salt passwords, monitor the network – had Yahoo done this, Rhykerd is certain that the suspiciously high amount of traffic would have alerted its IT admins – and implement a “least privilege access” policy, which means “each user or process should have the least amount of privileges necessary to perform their functions” so that hackers do not enjoy complete administrative access once they get inside the system. An IT Manager Daily article also recommends verifying the security of third-party organizations. In the case of Yahoo, it seems hackers exploited a vulnerability of a separate company, Associated Content, which Yahoo acquired in 2010 and rebranded as “Voices.” That poor security practices are commonplace should be a cause for concern. Another study, by Joseph Bonneau and Soren Preibusch of the University of Cambridge, “the first large-scale empirical analysis of password implementation deployed on the Internet,” analyzed 150 top websites that let users sign up for a free account, including Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn, The Economist, Forbes, and Amazon (the full list can be found on page 47), and discovered that many of them stored passwords as clear text, did not encrypt passwords during transmission, and did little to defend against brute force attacks. Again, there’s nothing users can do at the website administration-level in terms of data protection, but a strong password fortifies the wall that stands between your most intimate information and persevering hackers.

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NEWS ON THE NET Technology

Baidu expands to Southeast Asia, opens research center in Singapore Chinese search engine Baidu in July 26 opened a research center in Singapore as part of their efforts to expand internationally, reports The Next Web. Originally announced in February, the Baidu-I2R Research Center, which will develop local technologies and services for Southeast Asia, is a partnership between Baidu and Singapore’s Agency for Science and Technology Research. Baidu launched services in Thai and Arabic last year after beating Google to become the top search engine in China, according to a Bloomberg article. Chinese tech companies such as Internet service portal Tencent and game developer Shanda have also began their expansion to Southeast Asia through the acquisition of online assets.

Google Fiber launches in Kansas City Google’s fiber-optic-powered TV and Internet service rolled out in Kansas City on July 26. Interested residents can now pre-register before September 9 to have Fiber installed. The goal is to create “Fiberhoods,” groups of many households all connected through fiber-optic cables. Google will install Fiber in areas that have the most number of pre-registrations. By September 10, those who preregistered should check back on the website to see if their neighborhood qualified for installation, and only then

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can they be able to choose from a range of packages that start from $70 a month. The tech giant claims Fiber offers connection speeds 100 times faster than average broadband Internet, and will allow subscribers to watch TV on their computers and mobile devices and record up to eight shows simultaneously. The service comes with two terabytes of storage.

Olympic roundup: The most popular athletes online, plus a documentary on Olympic timekeeping technology A website has taken it upon itself to rank the online popularity of Olympic athletes to show which ones are the most talked about on social media networks. Starcount’s “Social Olympians of 2012” has daily leaderboards that show who’s trending on a given day “so you can compare winners both on and off the track,” according to the site. Mashable quotes Starcount’s Emma Wallace: “Starcount ranks the social media popularity of the most famous people from the top 11 global social networks,” in order to provide “a well-rounded, unique global social perspective.”

Electrical engineer Linda Milor talks about the timekeeping technologies used in the Olympics Science360 and NBC

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In other Olympics-related news, Science360 and NBC Learn have collaborated to produce the 10-part video series, “Science of the Summer Olympics: Engineering In Sports.” In the following video, electrical engineer Linda Milor of the Georgia Institute of Technology talks about the timekeeping technologies used in the Olympics, and why it’s important for these to measure performance both accurately and precisely.

Study: There’s something wrong with Facebook’s mobile ad strategy EyeTrackShop, a company that measures audience attention by tracking their eye movements via webcams, looked at how people view Facebook’s ads on the website and on the mobile versions for iPhones and iPads, and found that, while ads on the iPad app generally fared better than those posted on the website, iPhone ads performed poorly, reports ReadWriteWeb. Among other findings, the study saw that fewer people saw Facebook’s ads on the iPhone app than on the website and iPad app; users spent less time looking at ads on the iPhone than those on the iPad; and, of the three platforms, ads on the iPhone performed the worst in terms of recall and brand awareness. Reports ReadWriteWeb, “During yesterday’s call, Facebook executives revealed that more than half of its users regularly access Facebook through mobile sites. That raised concerns among analysts and investors, as nearly 85% of Facebook revenue comes from advertising, which the company has been struggling to implement on mobile platforms.”

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osing a loved one to Alzheimer’s disease is an ordeal even the bravest of hearts might find too great a burden to bear, as it’s a fatal disease for which there is currently no known cure. For now, experts are working to gain more knowledge about this debilitating illness in hopes of developing ways to detect it early and possibly treat or even prevent it.

Defeating Alzheimer’s Disease A look at early detection, risk factors, and prevention By Marishka Noelle M. Cabrera

STRATEGY POINTS Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease is key in developing treatments and interventions While there are no definitive causes of Alzheimer’s, experts point to old age and genetics as the risk factors Exercise, a healthy diet, and keeping the mind active may contribute to the prevention of cognitive decline

In research recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, it was found that the first detectable signs of Alzheimer’s may appear 25 years before symptoms associated with the disease become noticeable. Based on a July 11 report in Technology Review, the research gives a timeline of the subtle changes that occur in their brains, which can be detected years ahead through MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and blood analyses. This timeline was constructed from studies of 128 people with a rare, inherited form of Alzheimer’s whose symptoms occur in patients still in their 30s. Most patients exhibit symptoms after age 60. The report notes: “According to the study, levels in the spinal fluid of Aβ42, a protein associated with Alzheimer's, begins to decline 25 years before the onset of symptoms; at 15 years before symptoms develop, levels of another protein, called tau, begin to rise, and some brain shrinkage and atrophy is evident; at 10 years out, the brain's consumption of the sugar glucose is discernibly lower, and some memory impairment can be measured.” Early detection key to preventing or slowing down Alzheimer’s. According to the report, treatments have been unsuccessful so far because, as researchers believe, it is partly due to the patients receiving the drugs only after the symptoms were obvious and much damage having already been done to the brain. As such, developing biomarkers can track and predict the natural course of the disease, which is crucial in conducting drug studies.

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Defeating Alzheimer’s disease

In another study, it was revealed that this brain-wasting disease can, in fact, be stabilized. In a small trial, Alzheimer’s patients were given a drug that was already used to treat immune disorders. As discussed in a July 18 article, again in Technology Review, during the three-year period of administering the compound known as intravenous lg (IVlg), study participants showed no signs of further cognitive decline or memory loss. The study, presented by Norman Relkin, a neurologist at the Weill Cornell Medical Center, offers a glimmer of hope that more options will be available for Alzheimer’s patients, even as the article acknowledges that there are still no drug-treatment options for slowing down or preventing Alzheimer’s, and effects of medications for the symptoms are only temporary. Kun Ping Lu, a physician-scientist at Harvard Medical School, says the study suggests that Alzheimer’s can be stopped if there is a way we can identify it early. "Common sense in the field

is that Alzheimer's takes more than a decade to develop, and by the time your brain has damage, it's very hard to reverse," Lu continues, "If we are going to treat Alzheimer's disease, we have to find out as early as possible which patients are going to eventually get [it]." Amyloid proteins are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. The U.S. National Institute of Aging describes Alzheimer’s disease as “an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually even the ability to carry out the simplest tasks of daily living.” Abnormal clumps or amyloid plaques, tangled bundles of fibers in the brain, and the loss of connections between the nerve cells (neurons) are the main features of Alzheimer’s disease. Current treatments can slow the progression of the disease and help manage the symptoms, but a cure has yet to be discovered. The complex protein, amyloid, is produced in everyone’s brain. However, in people with Alzheimer’s, the amyloid forms clumps of

The interactive graphic from the Alzheimer’s Association shows the changes in the brain brought about by Alzheimer’s disease

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35 plaque, making it a hallmark of the disease. Until recently, the presence of these plaques could be confirmed only through an autopsy. In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a test developed by Eli Lilly & Co. that detects the presence of proteins related to the disease. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the test uses a radioactive agent called florbetapir, which tags amyloid proteins in the brain and is detected through a PET (positron emission tomography) scan. If the scan is positive for patients experiencing some form of cognitive decline, it means that moderate or frequent amyloid plaques are present in the brain, and findings, therefore, are consistent with Alzheimer’s disease. On the other hand, if the scan is negative, clinicians are given a clue that the disease is less likely to be the cause of memory

impairment. It is important to note that without cognitive impairment, the presence of amyloid plaque alone does not suggest the patient has Alzheimer’s. Detecting the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists from Oxford University developed an online quiz called the Cognitive Function Test. According to a May 2011 article in The Telegraph, the test provides an instant result that can either put a person’s mind at ease or encourage him or her to seek professional help. Designed for individuals from 50 to 70 years old, the test follows a significant study published in 2010, which credited a vitamin pill made of three vitamin-B supplements with reducing brain shrinkage related to the disease by up to five times. In the article, Alzheimer’s expert Professor David Smith argues, "Alzheimer’s is a

Telltale signs Alzheimer’s disease is one form of dementia that gradually worsens over time, based on information from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Generally, symptoms of dementia include difficulty with areas of mental functions, such as emotional behavior or personality, language, thinking and judgment, memory, and perception. Early signs of Alzheimer’s include: • Getting lost on familiar routes • Having difficulty performing tasks that involve some thought, but which used to come easily • Language problems, such as forgetting names of familiar objects • Misplacing items • Loss of social skills • Losing interest in things previously enjoyed As the disease progresses, symptoms become more obvious: • Change in sleep patterns • Delusions, depression, agitation • Withdrawal from social contact • Difficulty reading or writing and doing basic tasks, like choosing what clothes to wear and driving • Forgetting events in own life or losing awareness of one’s self • Poor judgment and loss of the ability to recognize danger For people with severe Alzheimer’s, they can no longer: • Understand language • Recognize family members • Perform basic activities of daily living

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Defeating Alzheimer’s disease

preventable disease, not an inevitable part of the ageing process. The trick is to identify any decline in memory function as early as possible and take the necessary prevention steps."

and Type 2 diabetes. The U.S. National Library of Medicine also adds having a close blood relative with the disease, along with some not yet well-proven factors, such as being female, having high blood pressure, and history of head trauma.

Walking the walk. ‘If we are going to Apart from cognitive and treat Alzheimer's Scientists have also linked a neurological examinations to determine if the patient disease, we have condition known as chronic has the disease, researchers inflammation to a number of to find out as are also linking physical life-threatening diseases, such early as possible capabilities, such as walking. as diabetes, heart disease, which patients Researchers reported at the stroke, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. are going to Alzheimer’s Association In a July Wall Street Journal International Conference eventually get [it]’ article published on the Yahoo in Vancouver, Canada, in portal, “inflammation is the ~Kun Ping Lu, July that subtle changes in body’s natural response to Harvard Medical the way a person walks can injury and outside irritants.” School be an early warning sign of When inflammation becomes cognitive decline. According chronic, experts believe it can to a USA Today report from the conference, damage heart valves and brain cells. researchers at the Mayo Clinic measured stride length, cadence, and velocity of more than 1,341 Late-life binge drinking and alcohol use may participants at two or more visits roughly 15 also increase risk of cognitive decline. In a press months apart. release from the 2012 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, two studies suggest “Walking and movements require a perfect and that moderate alcohol use later in life, heavier simultaneous integration of multiple areas of use earlier in life, and binge drinking in late-life the brain,” Rodolfo Savica, author of the Mayo may increase the risk of cognitive decline. Clinic study, said at the conference. Changes in walking occur because the disease interferes Outsmarting Alzheimer’s with exercise with the circuitry between areas of the brain. and mental stimulation. In two studies discussed in a February article in AARP, a According to the USA Today report, nonprofit organization helping individuals 5.4 million people in the U.S. have the disease, over 50, lifelong habits involving exercise and and the number will almost triple -- to 16 mental stimulation may protect the brain from million -- by 2050. Alzheimer’s disease. In one of the studies, 165 individuals between the ages of 45 to 88 Possible risk factors: age, genetics, and with no obvious signs of dementia were and chronic inflammation. While there surveyed as to their exercise habits over the last are no definitive causes for Alzheimer’s 10 years, and then subjected to a PET scan for disease, scientists have identified factors the protein that forms the amyloid protein. that increase the risk of developing the disease. The American Health Assistance Foundation, According to Denise Head, associate professor on its website, lists the two known risk factors: of psychology at Washington University in St. old age and genetics. Moreover, potential Louis, and lead author of one of the studies, contributing factors are cardiovascular disease individuals who carry a gene linked to an

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increased Alzheimer’s risk but who exercised regularly had protein levels similar to people who lacked the gene, while those who did not exercise at all exhibited much more extensive amyloid deposits. “What seems to happen is, during exercise, the brain turns on the enzymes that break down the amyloid,” notes Rudolph Tanzi, director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

hand, had protein levels comparable to that of Alzheimer’s patients. Curcumin, or turmeric, might also have a potential role in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s, according to a study on the effect of curcumin on Alzheimer’s disease published in the Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology in 2008. “Due to various effects of curcumin, such as decreased Beta-amyloid plaques, delayed degradation of neurons,

Battling with Alzheimer’s Here are some famous people who were stricken with Alzheimer’s disease: E.B. White, author of the famous children's book Charlotte's Web Sugar Ray Robinson, six-time American world boxing champion Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States of America Rita Hayworth, Hollywood bombshell who hit stardom in her role in The Strawberry Blonde in 1941 Perry Como, singer and television personality known for the hit song "It's Impossible" in 1970 Charlton Heston, won an Oscar award for best actor for his starring role in the film Ben-Hur Charles Bronson, American actor best known for his macho image and tough-guy roles Norman Rockwell, an artist known for his Realism styles and is famous for his 320+ Saturday Evening Post covers Glen Campbell, guitarist and singer famous for his pop and country music career and who later starred in the film True Grit in 1969, who was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s in 2011

In the other study, scientists from the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California in Berkeley interviewed 65 older people with no symptoms of Alzheimer’s about levels of various mental activities at different ages in their lives, and then scanned their brains for the amyloid protein. They found that participants with the highest level of mental activity (reading, writing, playing games) throughout their lifetime showed lower levels of protein buildup in their brains. Those with low levels of mental activity, on the other

metal-chelation, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and decreased microglia formation, the overall memory in patients with [Alzheimer’s disease] has improved,” the study says. While there is no definite cure for the disease on the horizon, there is reason to hope. As knowledge of this complex, brain-damaging, and life-shattering disease begins to unfold, it appears that the capability and the responsibility to stay sharp in our advancing age is as much ours as it is the experts’.

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NEWS ON THE NET Depression linked with late-night TV, computer use: study The United Nationalist Alliance has A new U.S. study suggests that staying up late in front of the TV and computer as well as leaving the screen on when falling asleep, can lead to depression, according to a July 24 Reuters story posted on American news website Huffington Post. According to the report, researchers from Ohio State University Medical Center saw symptoms of depression from the hamsters they exposed to dim light at night – the equivalent of a television screen in a darkened room -- similar to symptoms in depressed people. The researchers found changes in the hippocampus - a part of the brain - that were consistent with people suffering depression. Tracy Bedrosian, who led the study, said: “The good news is that people who stay up late in front of the television and computer may be able to undo some of the harmful effects just by going back to a regular light-dark cycle and minimizing their exposure to artificial light at night.”

Japanese women fall behind Hong Kong in longevity Japanese women no longer ranks number one in world life expectancy for the first time in 25 years, based on an annual report by the country’s Health Ministry, as reported by BBC News on July 27. The Ministry reportedly said that the March 2011 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 dead or missing contributed to the decline. The country has fallen behind Hong Kong, which the official life

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expectancy for women last year was 86.70 years. The life expectancy for women in Japan dropped from 86.30 years in 2010 to 85.90 years in 2011. The report, however, said that even without the disaster Japanese women would still have dropped behind Hong Kong in the statistics. The report said that Japan’s longevity is attributed in part to a healthy traditional diet. Meanwhile, other factors contributing to the decline in life expectancy included a rise in the number of suicides among Japanese women, disease, and other natural death causes, it added. Meanwhile, in South and Southeast Asia, the average life expectancy of people will rise to 75 years in less than 40 years, according to an April 2012 press release from the World Health Organization’s regional office for Southeast Asia in New Delhi. According to the World Health Organization, the number of people aged over 60 years in the sub-region, currently estimated to be around 142 million, will triple by 2050.

Shift work linked to 'increased risk of heart problems' A new study has concluded that those who work in mixed schedules, irregular, evening, and rotating shifts are more at risk to have major vascular problems, such as heart attacks and strokes, as reported by Indian news website Zeenews .com on July 27. According to the study “Shift work and vascular events: systematic review and metaanalysis,” published on bmj.com, shift work can disrupt the body clock and have an adverse effect on lifestyle. Researchers analyzed the results of 34 studies involving over two million individuals to investigate the

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association between shift work and major vascular events, and found that more than 17,359 had some kind of coronary event, 6,598 had myocardial infarctions (heart attacks), and 1,854 had ischemic strokes caused by lack of blood to the brain. These events were more common among shift workers than other people. Shift work was associated with an increased risk of heart attack (23%), coronary events (24%) and stroke (5%), based on the study.

Eating dessert at breakfast can aid weight loss Eating dessert with breakfast can help dieters lose more weight, according to researchers from Israel, according to an article in TIME magazine’s Healthland blog on June 25. Based on the article, researchers at Tel Aviv University studied 200 non-diabetic obese adults eating strict low-calorie diets and grouped them into two. One group eat a 600-calorie high-carb breakfast with a choice of cookie, chocolate, cake or a doughnut for dessert,and the other eat 300-calorie low carb breakfast . All the participants lost weight but those in the low-carb group had gained more weight in the follow up period while those indulging in dessert in the morning went on to lose additional weight. The dessert group reported feeling less hunger and fewer cravings than the other participants; their food diaries showed they were also better at sticking to their calorie limits, according to the June 25 TIME article by Alexandra Sifferlin. “The goal of a weight-loss diet should be not only weight reduction but also reduction of hunger and cravings, thus helping prevent weight regain,” lead study author Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz said.

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