Dogma among researchers exaggerates threat of resistance to best anti-malarial drugs, says malaria expert

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Exaggeration over the extent of the malaria parasite's resistance to the 'wonder drugs' artemisinins could jeopardise the fight against the disease, according to a leading expert.

In an opinion article published on World Malaria Day today (25 April 2013) -- online in the journal Trends in Parasitology, Professor Sanjeev Krishna of St George's, University of London argues that much of the evidence of the malaria parasite's resistance to artemisinin has been misinterpreted. He says this has led to the extent of artemisinin resistance being overstated, and that fears of its demise as an effective treatment are premature.

The artemisinin class of drugs are the best anti-malarial treatments available, and are used most effectively with other drugs as artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). Recent research has suggested that the malaria parasite is developing resistance to ACTs, particularly in Southeast Asia. Experts fear that if artemisinins became obsolete -- as previous anti-malarials have -- the effect could be devastating, as there are currently no other effective alternatives.

However, Professor Krishna argues that -- despite being accepted as dogma by the malaria research community -- most of the descriptions of artemisinin resistance do not meet the criteria by which resistance to other anti-malarials and drugs for other diseases have been measured.

For true resistance to exist, according to criteria used for other drugs, there needs to be: a significant failure in treatment (by not meeting the World Health Organization's target of a 95 per cent cure rate 28 days after treatment); a reduced sensitivity to the drug when the parasite is examined in the lab; and a visible delay in ridding the patient of parasites.

Currently, Professor Krishna says, it seems to be accepted that artemisinin treatment failure has occurred when a three-day course of ACT does not meet the target cure rate. This has been observed in a number of studies and has been used to try and understand 'artemisinin resistance.'

But other studies of seven-day courses of artemisinin monotherapies -- in which artemisinins are used alone, without partner drugs -- have shown up to 100 per cent cure rates after 28 days.

This, Professor Krishna, says, indicates proof of resistance to ACTs, but that there is no compelling evidence that artemisinins themselves are becoming less effective. He says this resistance will usually "be to a combination of an artemisinin with another drug against which there is usually a high background of resistance already."

"Contending that there is artemisinin resistance when cure of patients relies on the partner drug of an artemisinin is difficult to substantiate without additional studies," writes Professor Krishna. "It is more appropriate to describe the lack of observed efficacy as resistance to an artemisinin combination therapy rather than as being artemisinin resistance."

He adds that "crying wolf" and raising fears of artemisinin resistance when it is not yet proven "will itself have significant costs, so that when the wolf finally turns up, exhausted villagers no longer respond."

To ensure better understanding of when true artemisinin resistance occurs, and to learn how to fight it, Professor Krishna says there needs to be further research into the how the drugs work against the parasite. He also urges the development of molecular markers to predict the failure of the partner drugs used in ACTs, as well as further studies on artemisinin monotherapies.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/h0Kk4iRgEvc/130424222422.htm

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Faith in God positively influences treatment for individuals with psychiatric illness

Public release date: 25-Apr-2013
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Contact: Scott O'Brien
sobrien12@partners.org
617-855-2110
McLean Hospital

Belmont, MA Belief in God may significantly improve the outcome of those receiving short-term treatment for psychiatric illness, according to a recent study conducted by McLean Hospital investigators.

In the study, published in the current issue of Journal of Affective Disorders, David H. Rosmarin, PhD, McLean Hospital clinician and instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, examined individuals at the Behavioral Health Partial Hospital program at McLean in an effort to investigate the relationship between patients' level of belief in God, expectations for treatment and actual treatment outcomes.

"Our work suggests that people with a moderate to high level of belief in a higher power do significantly better in short-term psychiatric treatment than those without, regardless of their religious affiliation. Belief was associated with not only improved psychological wellbeing, but decreases in depression and intention to self-harm," explained Rosmarin.

The study looked at 159 patients, recruited over a one-year period. Each participant was asked to gauge their belief in God as well as their expectations for treatment outcome and emotion regulation, each on a five-point scale. Levels of depression, wellbeing, and self-harm were assessed at the beginning and end of their treatment program.

Of the patients sampled, more than 30 percent claimed no specific religious affiliation yet still saw the same benefits in treatment if their belief in a higher power was rated as moderately or very high. Patients with "no" or only "slight" belief in God were twice as likely not to respond to treatment than patients with higher levels of belief.

The study concludes: " belief in God is associated with improved treatment outcomes in psychiatric care. More centrally, our results suggest that belief in the credibility of psychiatric treatment and increased expectations to gain from treatment might be mechanisms by which belief in God can impact treatment outcomes."

Rosmarin commented, "Given the prevalence of religious belief in the United States over 90% of the population these findings are important in that they highlight the clinical implications of spiritual life. I hope that this work will lead to larger studies and increased funding in order to help as many people as possible."

###

McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a member of Partners HealthCare. For more information about McLean, visit http://www.mclean.harvard.edu or follow the hospital on Twitter @McLeanHospital.

---

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

Public release date: 25-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Scott O'Brien
sobrien12@partners.org
617-855-2110
McLean Hospital

Belmont, MA Belief in God may significantly improve the outcome of those receiving short-term treatment for psychiatric illness, according to a recent study conducted by McLean Hospital investigators.

In the study, published in the current issue of Journal of Affective Disorders, David H. Rosmarin, PhD, McLean Hospital clinician and instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, examined individuals at the Behavioral Health Partial Hospital program at McLean in an effort to investigate the relationship between patients' level of belief in God, expectations for treatment and actual treatment outcomes.

"Our work suggests that people with a moderate to high level of belief in a higher power do significantly better in short-term psychiatric treatment than those without, regardless of their religious affiliation. Belief was associated with not only improved psychological wellbeing, but decreases in depression and intention to self-harm," explained Rosmarin.

The study looked at 159 patients, recruited over a one-year period. Each participant was asked to gauge their belief in God as well as their expectations for treatment outcome and emotion regulation, each on a five-point scale. Levels of depression, wellbeing, and self-harm were assessed at the beginning and end of their treatment program.

Of the patients sampled, more than 30 percent claimed no specific religious affiliation yet still saw the same benefits in treatment if their belief in a higher power was rated as moderately or very high. Patients with "no" or only "slight" belief in God were twice as likely not to respond to treatment than patients with higher levels of belief.

The study concludes: " belief in God is associated with improved treatment outcomes in psychiatric care. More centrally, our results suggest that belief in the credibility of psychiatric treatment and increased expectations to gain from treatment might be mechanisms by which belief in God can impact treatment outcomes."

Rosmarin commented, "Given the prevalence of religious belief in the United States over 90% of the population these findings are important in that they highlight the clinical implications of spiritual life. I hope that this work will lead to larger studies and increased funding in order to help as many people as possible."

###

McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a member of Partners HealthCare. For more information about McLean, visit http://www.mclean.harvard.edu or follow the hospital on Twitter @McLeanHospital.

---

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/mh-fig042213.php

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High-volume Bitcoin exchanges less likely to fail, but more likely breached, says study

Apr. 24, 2013 ? As of April 2013, Bitcoin's market capitalization had soared to more than $1 billion, making it a frequent target of fraudsters. Bitcoins are encrypted virtual money created by computer programmers and not backed by any country or government.

A traceable form of cyber money, Bitcoins can be purchased and used much like hard currency to pay for goods and services, mostly over the Internet. Part of Bitcoins' attraction is its potential to reduce transaction fees for online purchases, as well as its mathematically-enforced protections against inflation.

Study authors Moore and Christin identified 40 Bitcoin exchanges worldwide that convert the cyber money into 33 hard currencies. Of those 40, 18 have gone out of business. Nine of the 40 experienced security breaches from hackers or other criminal activity, forcing five of them to subsequently close. Another 13 closed without any publicly announced breach, according to Moore and Christin.

From their study, the researchers found the failure rate of Bitcoin exchanges is 45 percent. The median lifetime of an exchange is just over one year, 381 days.

Of the 18 Bitcoin exchanges that closed, in 11 of those cases the authors were able to find evidence of whether or not the customers were reimbursed their money. Five exchanges didn't reimburse their customers. Six claim to have done so.

"The risk of losing funds stored at exchanges is real but uncertain," write Moore and Christin in "Beware the Middleman: Empirical Analysis of Bitcoin-Exchange Risk," which was invited for presentation at the 17th International Financial Cryptography and Data Security Conference held in Okinawa, Japan, April 1-5.

While various so-called crypto-currencies have been introduced in the past few years, Bitcoin is the first to be so widely adopted. Besides being open source, Bitcoin's attraction includes real-time peer-to-peer transactions, worldwide acceptance and low or no processing fees.

Crypto-currencies are intended to eliminate reliance on brick-and-mortar middlemen such as banks, exchanges, credit card conglomerates and other financial intermediaries. Despite that, and as a result of Bitcoin's booming popularity, a wide variety of middlemen have sprung up around the cyber currency. Those range from currency exchanges and online wallets to mining pools and legitimate or Ponzi scheme investment services, the authors said.

Moore and Christin focused their study on currency exchanges to examine the risk Bitcoin holders face from exchange failures.

Online exchanges that trade hard currency for the rapidly emerging cyber money known as Bitcoin have a 45 percent chance of failing -- often taking their customers' money with them.

The finding is from a new computer science study that applied survival analysis to examine the factors that prompt Bitcoin currency exchanges to close.

Results showed also that currency exchanges that buy and sell a higher volume of Bitcoins are less likely to shut down, but more likely to suffer a security breach.

The study analyzed 40 exchanges that buy and sell the virtual Bitcoin to identify factors that trigger or stave off closure, said the study's authors, computer scientists Tyler W. Moore, in the Lyle School of Engineering, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and Nicolas Christin, with the Information Networking Institute and Carnegie Mellon CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University.

Middlemen rise up in a system specifically meant to avoid middlemen

"Bitcoin is expressly designed to be completely decentralized with no single points of control," Moore said. "Yet currency exchanges have become de facto central authorities, and their success or failure drives Bitcoin's success or failure."

Recent wild fluctuations in the exchange rate of Bitcoins can be traced in part to the role of digital middlemen, he said, including the emergence of the currency exchanges that buy and sell Bitcoins.

Bitcoin's trading value at the start of the year was around $10 per Bitcoin. But its price soared as high as $260 earlier in April, then recently took a nosedive and is now hovering around $68, explained Moore.

"Much of that can be attributed to the Mt. Gox exchange temporarily shutting down because of heavy trading that overwhelmed the exchange," Moore said. "Studying why these exchanges fail helps us better understand the risks of Bitcoin."

Mt. Gox, based in Tokyo, is the most popular of the exchanges, with average daily transactions totaling more than 50,000 Bitcoins. Other high-volume exchanges include btc-e.com and Intersango.

Of the 40 exchanges Moore and Christin studied, the median for daily transactions carried out is 290. The mean is 1,716. Some 25 percent of exchanges process under 25 Bitcoins each day on average.

The findings of the study leave Bitcoin buyers in a dilemma: According to the study's empirical analysis, "Mt. Gox and Intersango are less likely to close than other exchanges" because of their high volume, the authors write.

But the study's logistic regression model yielded the result that the higher the transaction volume, the more likely a security breach by hackers. "More than 43,000 Bitcoins were stolen from the Bitcoinica trading platform in March 2012," the authors write, and "in September 2012, $250,000 worth of Bitcoins were pilfered from the Bitfloor currency exchange." Moreover, Mt. Gox has been breached multiple times.

Holding money at Bitcoin exchanges is risky

There are two ways to buy Bitcoins. Purchasers go online through an exchange such as Mt. Gox. They pay hard currency such as U.S. dollars at the market exchange rate, typically funded by a credit card. The exchange transfers the purchased Bitcoins to the buyer's Bitcoin address or the money remains in an online account maintained by the exchange.

"In the latter case, customers are at risk of losing their Bitcoins if the exchange suddenly closes," Moore said. "Believe it or not, many people -- if not most -- choose to leave the Bitcoins in the exchange account, thinking that their Bitcoins are better protected there and with faster access to convert back to hard currencies."

Bitcoins also can be purchased from local dealers. Buyers meet up with the dealer online or in person and pay cash for the Bitcoins, which are then transferred to the Bitcoin address provided.

Data for the study included daily trade volumes, average weighted daily price for conversions to other currencies, the lifetime of each exchange, whether investors were repaid following an exchange's closure, and whether the country where the exchange is based complies with the World Bank's regulations for Anti-Money-Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Southern Methodist University. The original article was written by Margaret Allen.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/Ma14gld-5PQ/130424161112.htm

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Mammal and bug food co-op in the High Arctic

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Who would have thought that two very different species, a small insect and a furry alpine mammal, would develop a shared food arrangement in the far North?

University of Alberta researchers were certainly surprised when they discovered the unusual response of pikas to patches of vegetation that had previously been grazed on by caterpillars from a species normally found in the high Arctic.

U of A biology researcher Isabel C. Barrio analyzed how two herbivores, caterpillars and pikas, competed for scarce vegetation in alpine areas of the southwest Yukon. The caterpillars come out of their winter cocoons and start consuming vegetation soon after the snow melts in June. Weeks later, the pika starts gathering and storing food in its winter den. For the experiment, Barrio altered the numbers of caterpillars grazing on small plots of land surrounding pika dens.

"What we found was that the pikas preferred the patches first grazed on by caterpillars," said Barrio. "We think the caterpillar's waste acted as a natural fertilizer, making the vegetation richer and more attractive to the pika."

U of A biology professor David Hik, who supervised the research, says the results are the opposite of what the team expected to find.

"Normally you'd expect that increased grazing by the caterpillars would have a negative effect on the pika," said Hik. "But the very territorial little pika actually preferred the vegetation first consumed by the caterpillars."

The researchers say it's highly unusual that two distant herbivore species -- an insect in its larval stage and a mammal -- react positively to one another when it comes to the all-consuming survival issue of finding food.

These caterpillars stay in their crawling larval stage for up to 14 years, sheltering in a cocoon during the long winters before finally becoming Arctic woolly bear moths for the final 24 hours of their lives.

The pika does not hibernate and gathers a food supply in its den. Its food-gathering territory surrounds the den and covers an area of around 700 square metres.

The researchers say they'll continue their work on the caterpillar-pika relationship to explore the long-term implications for increased insect populations and competition for scarce food resources in northern mountain environments.

Barrio was the lead author on the collaborative research project, which was published April 24 in the journal Biology Letters.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Alberta, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. The original article was written by Brian Murphy.

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Journal Reference:

1. I. C. Barrio, D. S. Hik, K. Peck, C. G. Bueno. After the frass: foraging pikas select patches previously grazed by caterpillars. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (3): 20130090 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0090

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/apG4-pzYpt8/130424161114.htm

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CA-NEWS Summary

Libya car bomb wounds French embassy guards

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A car bomb in Tripoli wounded two French guards at France's embassy in Libya on Tuesday, bringing new violence to the capital, which has not seen attacks on diplomats like that which killed the U.S. ambassador in Benghazi last year. Since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled by Western-backed rebels in late 2011, Tripoli, like the rest of the sprawling desert state, has been awash with weapons and roving armed bands, but violence in the city has not targeted diplomats before in the way Western envoys have been shot at and bombed in the east of the country.

Iran offers to be West's "reliable partner" in Mideast

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday that it would be a "reliable partner" in the Middle East if Western countries would take a more cooperative approach in talks on its nuclear program. Western powers blame tension with Iran in part on its refusal to cooperate with United Nations calls for curbs on its nuclear activity to ensure it is for peaceful purposes only, and to open up to investigations by U.N. inspectors.

Palestinian prisoner ends fast after deal with Israel

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian prisoner whose hunger strike had stoked weeks of protests in the West Bank ended his eight-month on-off fast on Tuesday in exchange for early release by Israel, Palestinian officials said. Israeli and Palestinian officials had feared that had Samer al-Issawi, 32, died because of refusing food, it might have led to mass unrest.

Colombia, FARC start new round of talks in Cuba

HAVANA (Reuters) - Colombia and the Marxist FARC rebels launched their latest round of peace talks on Tuesday in Havana after a month-long break in a process aimed at ending half a century of bloody conflict in the South American nation. At the end of their last round on March 21, both sides cited progress toward an accord on the key issue of agrarian reform, which lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle said needs to be settled soon so they can move on to other issues.

"Face the truth": Bosnian leader upbraids Serbian president

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Bosnian Muslim leader Bakir Izetbegovic publicly upbraided Serbia's nationalist president on Tuesday, saying he must face the truth of Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo before the region can move on. A disciple of the Greater Serbia ideology that fuelled the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, President Tomislav Nikolic's interpretations of what happened then have raised hackles in the Western Balkans since he took power almost a year ago.

Pakistan police say explosives found near Musharraf house

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani police said on Tuesday they found 45 kg (100 lb) of explosives hidden in a car near the residence where former president Pervez Musharraf is under house arrest, television channels reported. Video footage showed a bomb disposal squad examining a car near the farmhouse on the edge of the capital Islamabad where the former army chief was detained last week over allegations he had overstepped his powers while in office.

French parliament approves same-sex marriage law

PARIS (Reuters) - French parliament approved a law allowing same-sex couples to marry and to adopt children on Tuesday, a flagship reform pledge by President Francois Hollande which sparked often violent street protests and a rise in homophobic attacks. Lawmakers in the lower house National Assembly, where Hollande's Socialists have an absolute majority, passed the bill by 331 votes for and 225 against, making France the 14th country in the world to allow same-sex couples to wed.

Compromise seen close on Western Sahara allowing U.N. mission extension

PARIS (Reuters) - Diplomats said on Tuesday the United States had dropped demands for human rights observers in Western Sahara, paving the way for a compromise that would allow the U.N. mission in the disputed territory to extend its mandate for another year. A U.S.-drafted resolution that proposed allowing United Nations peacekeepers to monitor human rights abuses had angered Morocco, and taken its traditional protector France by surprise.

Anger in Lebanese streets as Syria border fighting rages

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Stripped to the waist, his face heavily bruised and a rope around his neck, the grey-haired Syrian man was led by his captors on a humiliating parade through the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. "I am an Alawite shabbiha," read slogans daubed on the bare chest of the man, referring to militias from a minority sect fighting for President Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria. Vigilantes led the man through Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city, on Monday.

Two men linked to al Qaeda in Mali arrested in Spain

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain has arrested two North Africans suspected of links to the North African branch of the militant Islamist network al Qaeda, the government said on Tuesday, following an investigation lasting more than a year. One man, an Algerian believed to have trained in a fighter camp in northern Mali run by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was arrested in the eastern province of Zaragoza, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The other, a Moroccan also alleged to have had contact with AQIM in Mali, was detained in the southern province of Murcia.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-100552537.html

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Boston to Russia: Looking for answers

BOSTON (AP) ? From Boston and Washington to Russia, investigators pressed for answers Wednesday about the Muslim radicalism believed behind the Boston Marathon bombing, while more than 4,000 mourners paid tribute to an MIT police officer who authorities say was gunned down by the bombers.

Among the speakers at the memorial service in Cambridge was Vice President Joe Biden, who condemned the bombing suspects as "two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knockoff jihadis."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was listed in fair condition as he recovered from wounds suffered during a getaway attempt. He could get the death penalty if convicted of plotting with his older brother, now dead, to set off the pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 260 on April 15. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a shootout with police.

The bombs were detonated by remote control, according to U.S. officials close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. It was not clear what the detonation device was, but the charges against Dzhokhar say he was using a cellphone moments before the blasts.

U.S. officials also said Dzhokhar has told interrogators he and his brother were angry about the U.S. wars in Muslim Afghanistan and Iraq.

After closed-door briefings on Capitol Hill with the FBI and other law enforcement officials, lawmakers said earlier this week that it appeared so far that the brothers were radicalized via the Internet instead of by direct contact with any terrorist groups, and that the older brother was the driving force in the bomb plot.

In Russia, U.S. investigators traveled to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan and were in contact with the brothers' parents, hoping to gain more information.

The parents, Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, plan to fly to the U.S. on Thursday, the father was quoted as telling the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. The family has said it wants to bring Tamerlan's body back to Russia.

Investigators are looking into whether Tamerlan, who spent six months in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region in 2012, was influenced by the religious extremists who have waged an insurgency against Russian forces in the area for years. The brothers have roots in Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya, but had lived in the U.S. for about a decade.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bagpipes wailed as students, faculty and staff members and throngs of law enforcement officials paid their respects to MIT police officer Sean Collier, who was ambushed in his cruiser three days after the bombing.

The line of mourners stretched for a half-mile. They had to make their way through tight security, including metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Boston native James Taylor sang "The Water is Wide" and led a sing-along of "Shower the People."

Biden told the Collier family that no child should die before his or her parents, but that, in time, the grief will lose some of its sting.

"The moment will come when the memory of Sean is triggered and you know it's going to be OK," Biden said. "When the first instinct is to get a smile on your lips before a tear to your eye."

The vice president also sounded a defiant note.

"The purpose of terror is to instill fear," he said. "You saw none of it here in Boston. Boston, you sent a powerful message to the world."

In another milestone in Boston's recovery, the area around the marathon finish line was reopened to the public, with fresh cement still drying on the repaired sidewalk. Delivery trucks made their way down Boylston Street under a heavy police presence, though some damaged stores were still closed.

"I don't think there's going to be a sense of normalcy for a while," Tom Champoux, who works nearby, said as he pointed to the boarded-up windows. "There are scars here that will be with us for a long time."

___

Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston, Lynn Berry in Moscow, and Kimberly Dozier, Adam Goldman, Eric Tucker, Matt Apuzzo, and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-bomb-investigation-extends-russia-215024259.html

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Freeskier Grete Eliassen tops ESPN Best Female in Action Sports ...

Freeskier Grete Eliassen tops ESPN Best Female in Action Sports poll

American-Norwegian freeskier Grete Eliassen has received the most number of votes in ESPN?s Best Female in Action Sports poll.

Voting remained opened between March 19 and April11, during which action sports enthusiasts voted feverishly for their favourite action sports athletes with the intended motivation of making them the winner.

Among the many categories of polls and brackets set up by ESPN was the poll for the most notable female athletes in ESPN. The options included the likes of five-time Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women?s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore, her fellow surfer Coco Ho, skaters Mimi Knoop and Leticia Bufoni, snowboarder Jess Kimura.

The poll attracted 54,166 votes, 64 percent of which went to Eliassen, thus making her a winning by a comprehensive margin.

The freeskier was surprised at managing to finish well above the top athlete sports female athletes and made no effort to hide her surprise and excitement.

She said that once she was informed about being in a bracket by her brother and that she was losing, she took to social media and got her family, friends and fans involved.

?I was totally surprised. My brother told me I was in a bracket and I was losing, so I put some stuff on my social media sites and called my family and started some momentum. It just carried on through and I won. To be on the same level as Travis Rice is pretty cool. I couldn't have done it without the fans. My Facebook followers don't feel like random strangers anymore. It feels like a team,? she admitted during an exclusive interview with ESPN.

Eliassen has gained prominence in action sports, especially after putting on a sensational performance to clinch bronze medal in Freeskiing Slopestyle at Winter X Games 2011 at Aspen, Colorado, losing the top two podium places to Kaya Turski and Keri Herman.

She tore her ACL last year and was unable to compete in the most recent season, but the Norwegian-American freeskier is all fired up to hit the slopes and halfpipe again.

With the Winter Olympics not too far away, she would surely be looking to build some momentum by participating in as many freestyle skiing competition as possible and trying to make a solid impact, if not win, in as many of them as possible.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Freeskier-Grete-Eliassen-tops-ESPN-Best-Female-in-Action-Sports-poll-a214729

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