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McDonald’s All-Americans: East Team
SF Al-Farouq Aminu
HIGH SCHOOL: Norcross, Ga.
COLLEGE: Wake Forest
BUZZ: Having a huge season and aiming for a third straight state championship.
SG William Buford
HIGH SCHOOL: Toledo (Ohio) Libbey
COLLEGE: Ohio State
BUZZ: The McDonald’s All-American road continues for the Buckeyes.
PF Ed Davis
HIGH SCHOOL: Mechanicsville (Va.) Benedictine School
COLLEGE: North Carolina
BUZZ: Having as good of a senior season as any big man in the nation.
PG Tyreke Evans
HIGH SCHOOL: Aston (Pa.) American Christian
COLLEGE: undecided
BUZZ: Could lead the game in scoring. He is wired to put the ball in the hole.
PF Jamychal Green
HIGH SCHOOL: Montgomery (Ala.) St. Jude
COLLEGE: Alabama
BUZZ: The high-energy big man is one of the toughest players to defend inside.
SG Sylven Landesberg
HIGH SCHOOL: Queens (N.Y.) Holy Cross
COLLEGE: Viginia
BUZZ: A huge senior season helped push him into the game.
SG Mike Rosario
HIGH SCHOOL: Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony
COLLEGE: Rutgers
BUZZ: Has helped pilot St. Anthony to an undefeated high school record and No. 1 overall ranking.
PF Samardo Samuels
HIGH SCHOOL: Newark (NJ) St. Benedict’s Prep
COLLEGE: Louisville
BUZZ: Has shined in nearly every national event he has played in this season.
SF Chris Singleton
HIGH SCHOOL: Dunwoody, Ga.
COLLEGE: Florida State
BUZZ: Hoping to help his Dunwoody team win another state title down the home stretch.
PG Kemba Walker
HIGH SCHOOL: New York (N.Y.) Rice
COLLEGE: Connecticut
BUZZ: One of the top pure point guards in the nation and is the best setup man in this game.
SG Elliot Williams
HIGH SCHOOL: Memphis (Tenn.) St. George’s
COLLEGE: Duke
BUZZ: One of the most complete guards in the nation.
C Tyler Zeller
HIGH SCHOOL: Washington, Ind.
COLLEGE: North Carolina
BUZZ: Putting up ridiculous numbers in final year in the Hoosier State.
McDonald’s All-Americans: West Team
PF Luke Babbitt
HIGH SCHOOL: Reno (Nev.) Galena
COLLEGE: Nevada
BUZZ: First national accolade of many for future Nevada star.
SG Demar DeRozan
HIGH SCHOOL: Compton, Calif.
COLLEGE: USC
BUZZ: Players like DeRozan shine in the McDonald’s game. See J.R. Smith and Gerald Green.
PG Larry Drew
HIGH SCHOOL: Woodland Hills (Calif.) Taft
COLLEGE: North Carolina
BUZZ: Another North Carolina-bound All-American.
C Michael Dunigan
HIGH SCHOOL: Chicago (Ill.) Farragut
COLLEGE: Oregon
BUZZ: The gritty center should be a defensive force inside the paint in this game.
PG Jrue Holiday
HIGH SCHOOL: North Hollywood (Calif.) Campbell Hall
COLLEGE: UCLA
BUZZ: Having as good of a senior season as anyone in the nation this year.
SG Scotty Hopson
HIGH SCHOOL: Hopkinsville (Ky.) University Heights
COLLEGE: undecided
BUZZ: Along with Evans, he’ll be one of the few unsigned prospects in the game.
PG Brandon Jennings
HIGH SCHOOL: Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill
COLLEGE: Arizona
BUZZ: Has been waiting for this big stage since the day he started high school.
SG Malcolm Lee
HIGH SCHOOL: Riverside (Calif.) J.W. North
COLLEGE: UCLA
BUZZ: Gets lost in the California shadow of Holiday and DeRozan but worthy of McDonald’s game.
PF Greg Monroe
HIGH SCHOOL: Harvey (La.) Helen Cox
COLLEGE: Georgetown
BUZZ: The big man really shined last summer playing with many of these same players.
C B.J. Mullens
HIGH SCHOOL: Canal Winchester, Ohio
COLLEGE: Ohio State
BUZZ: The best NBA big man prospect in the class of 2008.
PG Iman Shumpert
HIGH SCHOOL: Oak Park (Ill.) Oak Park River Forest
COLLEGE: Georgia Tech
BUZZ: Smooth, steady and full of star-power.
PG Willie Warren
HIGH SCHOOL: Fort Worth (Texas) North Crowley
COLLEGE: Oklahoma
BUZZ: Of all of the players in the game, he has the biggest chance for a wow moment.

NEW YORK - Having a big belly in your 40s can boost your risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia decades later, a new study suggests.

It’s not just about your weight. While previous research has found evidence that obesity in middle age raises the chances of developing dementia later, the new work found a separate risk from storing a lot of fat in the abdomen. Even people who weren’t overweight were susceptible.

That abdominal fat, sometimes described as making people apple-shaped rather than pear-shaped, has already been linked to higher risk of developing diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

“Now we can add dementia to that,” said study author Rachel Whitmer of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.

She and others report the findings in Wednesday’s online issue of the journal Neurology.

The study involved 6,583 men and women who were ages 40 to 45 when they had checkups between 1964 and 1973. As part of the exam, their belly size was measured by using a caliper to find the distance between their backs and the surface of their upper abdomens. For the study, a distance of about 10 inches or more was considered high.

The researchers checked medical records to see who had developed Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia by an average of 36 years later. At that point the participants were ages 73 to 87. There were 1,049 cases.

Analysis found that compared to people in the study with normal body weight and a low belly measurement:

• Participants with normal body weight and high belly measurements were 89 percent more likely to have dementia.

• Overweight people were 82 percent more likely if they had a low belly measurement, but more than twice as likely if they had a high belly measurement.

• Obese people were 81 percent more likely if they had a low belly measurement, but more than three times as likely if they had a high measurement.

Whitmer said there’s no precise way to translate belly measurements into waist circumference. But most people have a sense of whether they have a big belly, she said. And if they do, the new study suggests they should get rid of it, she said.

It’s not clear why abdominal fat would promote dementia, but it may pump out substances that harm the brain, she said.

Dr. Jose Luchsinger of the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, who studies the connection between obesity and Alzheimer’s disease but didn’t participate in the new work, cautioned that such a study cannot prove abdominal fat promotes dementia.

But the study results are “highly plausible” and “I’m not surprised at all,” he said. High insulin levels might help explain them, he said.

Dr. Samuel Gandy, who chairs the medical and scientific advisory council of the Alzheimer’s Association, said the results fit in with previous work that indicates a person’s characteristics in middle age can affect the risk of dementia in later life.

And it’s another example of how traits associated with the risk of developing heart disease are also linked to later dementia, he said.

If you’ve been putting off buying a flat-panel LCD TV with the hope of getting one for a dramatically lower price this year, it looks like you’re out of luck. During the DisplaySearch Flat-Panel TV conference in La Jolla, Calif., earlier this month, panelists said they expect price declines in 2008 to be moderate, and some LCD models may actually be a bit more expensive.

There may also be fewer LCD brands to choose from, several panelists warned. Less familiar brands may be pushed off shelves as some better-known brands, including Sony and Vizio, continue to market models specifically for mass-market market retailers such as Wal-Mart.

In plasmas, the other major flat-panel technology, panelists predicted more and deeper price drops than for LCDs, though nothing to rival the declines of the past few years. In both plasma and LCDs, price drops will be greater for 1080p (so-called “full HD”) models than for those with 720p resolution.

Both technologies will continue a growing overlap in screen sizes. In addition to a growing number of sub-40-inch plasmas, some 55-inch LCD models are expected. Ross Young, president of DisplaySearch, predicts we’ll also see 46-inch plasmas emerge to compete with 46- and 47-inch LCD TVs.

As for OLED, the new kid on the flat-panel block, speakers predicted a promising future. But they also said OLED technology isn’t likely to have a major impact on flat-panel TV sales for several years, for reasons that range from high cost and small size to concern about life expectancy and burn-in. More brands of OLED sets will be available in 2008. LG will begin OLED production during the first half of the year, joining Samsung, Sony, eMagin and others. Sharp is expected to build a pilot line this year. We may also see the arrival of some of the first flexible displays, most likely in eBook readers.

Other news from the event:

Wal-Mart is now the second-largest seller of TVs in the U.S., behind Best Buy, and is expanding its offerings and merchandising;

The use of LED backlights in LCD sets will surge in 2008, and we’ll see a growing number of notebooks use this technology, which promises a wider range of colors and more consistent brightness across the display;

In LCD, there will be a heightened emphasis on 120Hz technology, which can help reduce motion blur in fast-moving images. In January, 120Hz models had the majority share of 52-inch sets, despite the 30 percent price premium for sets with the technology;

And retailers will increasingly push product “bundles”-such as a TV, Blu-ray player and software-to help maintain margins as TV profitability declines.