Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/294816971?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Stocks waver; Retail sales rose in February
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks were little changed in early trading on Wall Street after a report showed that retail sales rose more than forecast in February.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 24 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,426 as of 9:52 a.m. EDT. The index rose for an eighth straight day Tuesday, its longest streak of advances in more than two years.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell three points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,549. The Nasdaq composite fell 9 points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,233.
Americans spent at the fastest pace in five months in February, boosting retail spending 1.1 percent compared with January, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Economists had forecast a rise of just 0.2 percent, according to data provider FactSet.
The solid increase in retail sales is encouraging because it shows that Americans kept spending despite a payroll tax increase that has lowered take-home pay this year for most workers. Consumer spending drives about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.
If the Dow closes higher, it would match the longest streak of advances since May 1996, according to Ryan Detrick, an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. The Dow is up 10.1 percent this year and has closed at record highs over the previous six days.
Demand for stocks has been propelled this year by optimism that the housing market is recovering and that companies have started to hire. Strong company earnings and ongoing stimulus from the Federal Reserve are also helping make stocks more attractive.
The broader S&P 500 index has gained 8.7 percent and is within less than a percentage point of its record close of 1,1565.15 set in October 2007.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.04 percent from 2.02 percent.
Among stocks making big moves;
? Spectrum Pharmaceuticals plunged $4.36, or 35 percent, to $8.03 after the pharmaceutical company said sales of its drug Fusilev could fall by more than half this year.
? Dole dropped 60 cents to $11.12 after the company's fourth-quarter results fell short of analysts' expectations. The fruit company cited lower banana prices in North America.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-waver-retail-sales-rose-february-140641641--finance.html
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Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Cardinals gather to begin secret voting for successor to Pope Benedict
VATICAN CITY, Italy - A conclave to elect the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church begins today, with Canada's Cardinal Marc Ouellet among those in the running to be the new pontiff.
Ouellet and 114 other cardinals will seal themselves into the ornate Sistine Chapel to pick a successor to Pope Benedict, who retired last month after eight years in office.
Ouellet is a Quebec native who holds a powerful post in the Vatican where he plays a key role in the selection of bishops and archbishops around the world.
The centuries-old process for choosing a new pope is veiled in secrecy and the chapel has been swept for listening devices by Vatican security.
The election of the new pope will be signalled by a puff of white smoke from a special chimney installed on the roof of the Vatican.
Black smoke indicates no decision has been reached.
Several rounds of balloting could be held and the conclave will go on until a new pontiff is chosen.
Auravelia Colomer, 27, cashed in all her annual vacation time to make the pilgrimage to Italy. The Toronto public relations consultant was originally meant to arrive in Rome for Holy Week but set her sights on witnessing the new pope's election after the date of the conclave was announced.
"I thought I needed to be there, it's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it's going to be historic," said Colomer, who waited on standby over the weekend before finally securing a flight for Tuesday night.
She's hoping to get there before the decision is made and plans to "run over to St. Peter's Square and camp out until I see the smoke."
Colomer said it's long been her dream to be present for such a pivotal moment for the Catholic faith, but admits "the possibility of a Canadian pope is also a driving factor."
Cardinals held a final debate on Monday on the type of man best suited for the job.
Some wonder whether Catholics need a solid manager to address the Vatican bureaucracy and controversies over scandals and alleged corruption or a more inspirational figure to bring more people into the church.
Some possible candidates are Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, and Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cardinals-gather-begin-secret-voting-successor-pope-benedict-080732117.html
Monday, March 11, 2013
Cash can bribe dieters to lose weight, study finds
In this Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 photo, doughnuts are fried in cooking oil in New York. Willpower apparently can be bought. The chance to win or lose $20 a month enticed people in a yearlong study to drop an average of nine pounds - four times more weight than others who were not offered dough to pass up the doughnuts. The new study, done at the Mayo Clinic, was released Thursday, March 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
In this Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 photo, doughnuts are fried in cooking oil in New York. Willpower apparently can be bought. The chance to win or lose $20 a month enticed people in a yearlong study to drop an average of nine pounds - four times more weight than others who were not offered dough to pass up the doughnuts. The new study, done at the Mayo Clinic, was released Thursday, March 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Willpower apparently can be bought. The chance to win or lose $20 a month enticed dieters in a yearlong study to drop an average of 9 pounds ? four times more weight than others who were not offered dough to pass up the doughnuts.
Many employers, insurers and Internet programs dangle dollars to try to change bad habits like smoking or not exercising, but most studies have found this doesn't work very well or for very long.
The new study, done with Mayo Clinic employees, was the longest test yet of financial incentives for weight loss. Doctors think it succeeded because it had a mix of carrots and sticks ? penalties for not losing weight, multiple ways to earn cash for succeeding, and a chance to recoup lost money if you fell off the "diet wagon" and later repented.
Incentives are "not like training wheels where people learn healthy habits and then will continue them on their own" ? you have to keep them up for them to work, said one study leader, Dr. Steve Driver of Mayo in Rochester, Minn.
And if you're looking to set up a system like this at work or among friends, the key is to make it self-sustaining, Driver said. The Mayo one did that by having people who didn't lose weight put penalties into a fund that paid rewards to those who did.
It's also a good idea to make people pony up in advance. One woman flew into a tizzy when she stepped on a scale at a weigh-in and was told she'd have to pay.
"She headed for the door" but later came back and paid, Driver said. "People in Minnesota are pretty honest."
Driver will discuss the study this weekend at an American College of Cardiology conference in San Francisco. The group released results Thursday. Mayo paid for the study and Driver owns stock in Gympact, a company with an Internet program that gives financial incentives for exercising.
The diet study involved 100 obese employees at Mayo Clinic but was not a workplace wellness program. Half were given weight-loss counseling, monthly weigh-ins and a three-month gym membership. The others had those things plus financial incentives.
The aim was to lose 4 pounds a month up to a goal that depended on their starting weight. If they failed, they paid $20 into a kitty. If they succeeded, they got a voucher to collect $20 when the study ended. Part of the kitty was used to pay the rewards. The rest was put into a lottery that anyone could win, whether they had made their weight-loss goals or not.
"People saw that if they stuck with it, they had a chance at winning more than they had lost," Driver said.
Participants in the financial incentives group also earned $10 a month and lottery "tickets" for coming to monthly weigh-ins and texting their weights to study leaders each week, said Dr. Don Hensrud, preventive medicine chief at Mayo. So people could have lost as much as $240 or won as much as $360, plus what built up in the lottery fund.
After a year, 27 of the 50 financial incentive participants came out ahead moneywise. About 62 percent of them completed the study versus 26 percent of the other group. The incentives group lost a little more than 9 pounds on average, compared to 2.3 pounds for the others.
The results are promising, but people may need to lose more than 9 pounds to make a big difference in health, said Dr. Kevin Volpp, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics.
"There's been an explosion of interest in this" and 86 percent of large employers now provide incentive programs like this, he said.
The cash was a big motivator for one study participant ? Audrey Traun, 29, a lab training specialist who dropped 40 pounds, from 215 pounds to 175.
"I was impressed. I didn't think I was quite capable of that," said Traun, who lives in Kellogg, Minn. As the study went on, though, the cash became less important, and "it was actually more motivating to see my progress ? pounds lost and how my clothes were fitting," she said.
Traun used the nearly $400 she earned in the study on a family vacation.
In England, there was big enthusiasm a few years back for campaigns using cash or gift certificates to convince people to make healthier choices, like getting vaccinated, quitting smoking and losing weight. But after a few limited trials, the programs have mostly petered out. The most successful were those that offered pregnant women vouchers if they stopped smoking; several of those programs are still in place.
"You have to prove these schemes work otherwise it's just money down the drain," said Eleni Mantzari, who studies financial incentives in health at King's College London. People often revert to unhealthy habits once the financial motivation is gone, she said.
___
AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.
___
Online:
Health incentives research: http://chibe.upenn.edu/
___
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
Associated PressFriday, March 8, 2013
Attorney General Claims Aaron Swartz Case Was ?A Good Use of Prosecutorial Discretion?
Attorney General Eric Holder claims critics are wrong to blame prosecutors for misconduct in the handling of Internet activist Aaron Swartz. Swartz committed suicide after allegedly facing 50+ years in prison for releasing millions of pay-walled academic articles. During a congressional Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, Holder claimed that the media overhyped the assumption of an overzealous prosecutor, saying that a plea deal of a few months in prison was offered and rejected by Swartz.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/P7Zfs6doSH8/
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Thursday, March 7, 2013
Cardinals impose media blackout ahead of conclave
Cardinal Daniel Nicholas DiNardo, left, and Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, right, arrive for a meeting, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for a round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Cardinal Daniel Nicholas DiNardo, left, and Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, right, arrive for a meeting, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for a round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet holds on to his umbrella and his skull cap on a rainy windy day as he walks in St. Peter's Square after attending a cardinals' meeting, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Cardinals are meeting to discuss the problems of the church and to get to know one another because there is no clear front-runner in the election of the new pope. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Cardinal Daniel Nicholas DiNardo steps out of a bus as he arrives for a meeting, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for a round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin is surrounded by reporters after a cardinals' meeting, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Cardinal Theodore Adrien Sarr, of Senegal, arrives for a cardinals' meeting, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Cardinals are meeting to discuss the problems of the church and to get to know one another because there is no clear front-runner in the election of the new pope. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? In the end, American-style transparency was no match for the Vatican's obsession with secrecy.
Cardinals attending closed-door discussions ahead of the conclave to elect the next pope imposed a media blackout Wednesday, forcing the cancellation of the popular daily press briefings by U.S. cardinals that had provided crucial insights into the deliberations.
The official reason for the blackout was that some details of the secret discussions about the problems in the church appeared in the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
But speculation mounted that the underlying aim of the blackout was to silence the Americans, who have been vocal in their calls for disclosure about allegations of corruption and dysfunction in the Holy See's governance before they enter the conclave to elect a successor to Benedict XVI.
As a result, the conflict appears to be a microcosm of the likely battle lines heading into the election: American and German cardinals have indicated they want a pope who will impose some order on the Vatican's inner workings, while the Vatican-based cardinals are defending their record and seeking to end the discussion.
One Italian cardinal said the Curia, or the Vatican bureaucracy, had been sorely maligned and that he could "only say good things about it."
"In the Curia, the pope has a docile tool that does exactly what he wants and tries to help him in the best of ways," Italian media quoted Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the retired administrator of the Vatican City State as saying during a book launch Tuesday. "Of course it can always be improved."
That picture is at odds with evidence of turf battles, Machiavellian machinations and allegations of corruption and cronyism that were exposed last year when private papal documents were leaked to an Italian journalist. The documents paint a portrait of an utterly dysfunctional, ungovernable Italian bureaucracy.
The Vatican denied it had exerted any pressure on the American cardinals to keep quiet and cancel their briefings. But the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, made clear that the Holy See considered this week's pre-conclave meetings to be secret and part of a solemn process to choose a pope, suggesting that he didn't necessarily appreciate the Americans' candor.
"The College (of Cardinals) as a whole has decided to maintain a line of an increasing degree of reserve," he said.
The debate played out as the Vatican awaited the arrival of the last voting-age cardinal: Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, who was expected in Rome on Thursday. With his arrival, the College of Cardinals was expected to be able to set a date for the start of the conclave, where 115 men will select the next pontiff.
The spokeswoman for the U.S. cardinals, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said Wednesday's briefing and all cardinal interviews were canceled after other cardinals expressed concern about the content of articles in Italian daily La Stampa, which over the past several days reported details of comments individual cardinals made in the closed-door meetings.
La Stampa reported Wednesday, for example, that the head of the Vatican's legal office had told the cardinals of the need for improved coordination among the various Vatican offices and better communication between the Holy See and local dioceses. None of those details came from the American briefing, where the U.S. cardinals took pains to stress the secrecy of the actual proceedings.
"I don't think anyone was angry at the Americans. They were angry at La Stampa," Walsh told The Associated Press.
"In true old-style Catholic school teacher fashion, someone talks and everybody stays after school," Walsh said. She added that the Americans had been assured that the Vatican was pleased with their briefings.
Perhaps. But Lombardi's palpable irritation suggested otherwise.
Italian media reported that Vatican-based cardinals wanted the election to take place quickly and speculated that Italian cardinals in particular were displeased with the Americans for making clear they were requesting more information about the Vatican's internal governance problems. The implication was the Rome-based cardinals didn't want the Vatican's dirty laundry aired out.
Cardinals Daniel DiNardo of Texas and Sean O'Malley of Boston said in Tuesday's briefing that they favored taking a longer time for pre-conclave discussions to gather more information.
"We need to give it the time that's necessary," O'Malley told the packed press conference at the North American College, the U.S. seminary up the hill from the Vatican. "I believe the feeling of the cardinals is that we want to have enough time in the general congregations so that when we go to the conclave itself it's a time of decision."
Drawing laughs, O'Malley added: "And it is hard to get a bad meal in Rome."
German Cardinal Walter Kasper also called for more time. "Among the cardinals, we barely know one another," he told La Repubblica newspaper. "There's no hurry."
Italian newspapers and international media, including The Associated Press, have reported on the Americans' unique briefings and how they contrasted with the near-silence from other cardinals and Lombardi's comparatively sedate Vatican briefings.
During Tuesday's briefing, DiNardo and O'Malley held a lively and informative 30-minute chat with some 100 reporters and two dozen television crews from around the globe. They revealed no details of their closed-door discussions. But they nevertheless provided journalists with insight about the process from two people actually involved.
"We're trying to help people have a greater understanding of what the process is and the procedures and background information," O'Malley told reporters. "Right now that's about all we can share with you but we're happy to try to do it."
Although the Americans were the only cardinals who were holding daily briefings, other individual cardinals have given occasional interviews to individual media.
And in an indication that the blackout wasn't total, U.S. Cardinal Timothy Dolan went ahead with his live radio show broadcast Wednesday.
_____
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
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Members of Hugo Chavez's inner circle
Key players within Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's inner circle:
? Nicolas Maduro, vice president: One of most visible and resilient leaders of Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Was bus driver and union leader years ago. Showed political finesse as National Assembly president and was foreign minister from 2006 until 2012, when he was appointed vice president. Chavez designated Maduro as his chosen successor before his final surgery.
? Diosdado Cabello, former army officer who joined 1992 coup attempt led by Chavez: Was governor of Miranda state in 2004-08, when he lost re-election bid. Also served as vice president. Named National Assembly president in January 2012, Chavez said, due to support within his party.
? Adan Chavez, president's older brother: Mild-mannered former university physics professor. Was Venezuela's ambassador to Cuba before president appointed him in 2006 as minister of the presidency. Was education minister in 2007-08, and then was elected governor of their home state of Barinas.
? Rafael Ramirez, oil minister and president of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA: Was mechanical engineer. Appointed energy minister in July 2002. Has played powerful role overseeing oil industry.
? Elias Jaua, former vice president: Former university professor. Became Chavez's minister of the presidency and agriculture minister. Earned sociology degree from Central University of Venezuela before getting involved in politics.
? Adm. Diego Molero, defense minister: Chavez promoted him to the rank of admiral in chief just before his last surgery.
? Gen. Henry Rangel Silva, former defense minister: Joined Chavez in unsuccessful 1992 attempt to overthrow government. Was chief of country's civilian intelligence agency under Chavez, and in 2012 was appointed defense minister. Criticized by opposition for saying in 2010 interview that military wouldn't accept "hypothetical opposition government." U.S. officials accused Rangel of aiding Colombian rebels; Chavez dismissed accusation as politically motivated.
? Maria Gabriela Chavez and Rosa Virginia Chavez, two daughters often at Chavez's side: Of his four children, Maria and Rosa took on biggest roles accompanying the divorced president at events, though they seldom spoke publicly. Maria took on important role in 2002, when in midst of a coup that briefly ousted Chavez she told Cuban television that her father hadn't resigned and was being held by soldiers. Eldest daughter Rosa married to Jorge Arreaza, government's science and technology minister. Both daughters were with Chavez frequently during his cancer treatment.
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Source: http://forums.ferra.ru/index.php?showtopic=54801
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Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Most Kids With Autism Overcome Language Delays, Study Finds ...
By Mary Brophy Marcus
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, March 4 (HealthDay News) ? Severe language delays early in the life of a child with autism can be overcome, especially if a child exhibits nonverbal intelligence.
A new study that looked at speech delays in children with autism spectrum disorders found that 70 percent of children who were not stringing words together into even the simplest of phrases by age 4 went on to do so by age 8, and in some cases, even achieved fluent speech.
?Autism spectrum disorders? is an umbrella term for neurodevelopmental conditions ranging from Asperger?s syndrome to severe autism. Hallmarks of these conditions include problems with social interaction and repetitive behaviors.
The findings, published online March 4 and in the April print issue of the journal Pediatrics, offer hope, said lead author Dr. Ericka Wodka, a neuropsychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the Kennedy Krieger Institute?s Center for Autism and Related Disorders, in Baltimore.
?The study gives doctors and parents a sense that when these delays persist ? when a child presents at age 6 or 7 without phrase speech ? they still have growth opportunity,? Wodka said. ?There?s still a lot of hope that these children can go on to gain meaningful language.?
The scientists evaluated data on more than 500 children with an autism spectrum disorder who were part of a national multisite study that involved complete evaluations on every child.
?Our data are based on actual measurements of current functioning and parent interviews, not chart review,? Wodka said.
As toddlers, none of the children in the study had achieved ?phrase speech,? the ability to put together more than two or three words to communicate ? to say basic sentences such as, ?I want juice,? for example.
Demographics ? including parent income and education level, and child psychiatric characteristics ? were not associated with whether a child with language delay attained phrase speech, Wodka said. Repetitive behaviors, such as hand-flapping, were not linked with delayed speech either.
Strong predictors of a child?s ability to go on to develop phrase or fluent speech skills included his or her non-verbal IQ and being less impaired socially, Wodka said.
The size of the study lends the findings weight, said Dr. Sarah Paterson, a scientist in the Developmental Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia. Paterson conducts brain imaging and cognitive studies of infants at risk for autism.
?There is a large number of children involved,? Paterson said. ?It?s hard to get a sample that big in an autism study and I think it gives us some insight into what?s happening with language.?
Paterson said the results are not surprising. ?I think the take-home message is that, as we?ve thought for a long time, social skills and nonverbal communication skills really are building blocks for language. Those who do have those skills generally have better language than those who don?t.?
Parents need to keep the results in perspective, though, said another autism expert.
?Parents should be cautious about applying statistics from studies like these to their individual child?s outcome,? said Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Cohen Children?s Medical Center of New York, in New Hyde Park.
Adesman said it?s also important to note that although autism has to be considered whenever evaluating a child with language delay, the majority of children with language delay at age 2 or 3 don?t have an autism spectrum disorder. ?That?s an important point,? he said. ?This study wasn?t looking at severe language delay without diagnosis of autism.?
Adesman said if children have good nonverbal communication skills ? if they use gestures to communicate even though they don?t use words, for example, and if they engage with people appropriately and are socially responsive ? that would suggest something other than autism spectrum disorder is the likely cause of language delay.
Parents with concerns about their toddler?s lack of language development can ask their pediatrician about autism screening, or look for a community resource. ?Every child can get a free evaluation when language delay is suspected,? he said.
Wodka said she hopes the study findings will help guide parents and health professionals who work with children with autism to set both language and behavioral goals.
?What complicates issues for children with autism is that it?s not purely a language disorder,? she said. ?It?s a communication disorder, and it?s important to consider the child?s intellectual level as well as the social issues.?
More information
Visit the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health to learn more about autism.
Source: http://news.health.com/2013/03/04/most-kids-with-autism-overcome-language-delays-study-finds/
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'True grit' erodes assumptions about evolution
Mar. 4, 2013 ? Dining on field grasses would be ruinous to human teeth, but mammals such as horses, rhinos and gazelles evolved long, strong teeth that are up to the task.
New research led by the University of Washington challenges the 140-year-old assumption that finding fossilized remains of prehistoric animals with such teeth meant the animals were living in grasslands and savannas. Instead it appears certain South American mammals evolved the teeth in response to the gritty dust and volcanic ash they encountered while feeding in an ancient tropical forest.
The new work was conducted in Argentina where scientists had thought Earth's first grasslands emerged 38 million years ago, an assumption based on fossils of these specialized teeth. But the grasslands didn't exist. Instead there were tropical forests rich with palms, bamboos and gingers, according to Caroline Str?mberg, UW assistant professor of biology and lead author of an article in Nature Communications.
"The assumption about grasslands and the evolution of these teeth was based on animal fossils," Str?mberg said. "No one had looked in detail at evidence from the plant record before. Our findings show that you shouldn't assume adaptations always came about in the same way, that the trigger is the same environment every time."
To handle a lifetime of rough abrasion, the specialized teeth -- called high-crowned cheek teeth -- are especially long and mostly up in the animals' gums when they are young. As chewing surfaces of the teeth wear away, more of the tooth emerges from the gums until the crowns are used up. In each tooth, bone-like dentin and tough enamel are complexly folded and layered to create strong ridged surfaces for chewing. Human teeth have short crowns and enamel only on the outside of each tooth.
In Argentina, mammals apparently developed specialized teeth 20 million years or more before grasslands appeared, Str?mberg said. This was different from her previous work in North America and western Eurasia where she found the emergence of grasslands coincided with the early ancestors of horses and other animals evolving specialized teeth. The cause and effect, however, took 4 million years, considerably more lag time than previously thought.
The idea that specialized teeth could have evolved in response to eating dust and grit on plants and the ground is not new. In the case of Argentine mammals, Str?mberg and her co-authors hypothesize that the teeth adapted to handle volcanic ash because so much is present at the study site. For example, some layers of volcanic ash are as thick as 20 feet (six meters). In other layers, soils and roots were just starting to develop when they were smothered with more ash.
Chewing grasses is abrasive because grasses take up more silica from soils than most other plants. Silica forms minute particles inside many plants called phytoliths that, among other things, help some plants stand upright and form part of the protective coating on seeds.
Phytoliths vary in appearance under a microscope depending on the kind of plant. When plants die and decay, the phytoliths remain as part of the soil layer. In work funded by the National Science Foundation, Str?mberg and her colleagues collected samples from Argentina's Gran Barranca, literally "Great Cliff," that offers access to layers of soil, ash and sand going back millions of years.
The phytoliths they found in 38-million-year-old layers -- when ancient mammals in that part of the world developed specialized teeth -- were overwhelmingly from tropical forests, Str?mberg said.
"In modern grasslands and savannas you'd expect at least 35 to 40 percent -- more likely well over 50 percent -- of grass phytoliths. The fact we have so little evidence of grasses is very diagnostic of a forested habitat," she said.
The emergence of grasslands and the evolution of specialized teeth in mammals are regarded as a classic example of co-evolution, one that has occurred in various places around the world. However, as the new work shows, "caution is required when using this functional trait for habitat reconstruction," the co-authors write.
Other co-authors are Regan Dunn, a UW doctoral candidate; Richard Madden, University of Chicago; Matthew Kohn, Boise State University; and Alfredo Carlini, National University of La Plata, Argentina.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington. The original article was written by Sandra Hines.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Caroline A.E. Str?mberg, Regan E. Dunn, Richard H. Madden, Matthew J. Kohn, Alfredo A. Carlini. Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America. Nature Communications, 2013; 4: 1478 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2508
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/~3/I5X2JusivGE/130304211502.htm
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Jelly Bean keeps gaining ground as Ice Cream Sandwich, Gingerbread start to fade
RIO DE JANEIRO, March 5 (Reuters) - Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari stood up for specialist dribbler Neymar on Tuesday, saying the flamboyant forward's reputation for falling down easily was undeserved and exaggerated. "He gets fouled 10 times a match, and possibly one or two of those free kicks shouldn't be awarded, but then that is normal in football," Scolari told a news conference on Tuesday. "The coaches who criticise Neymar, who claim he falls over or simulates fouls, do that because it's an easy way out for them. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jelly-bean-keeps-gaining-ground-ice-cream-sandwich-223404365.html
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Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Stellar Solutions Blog | Current Digital Marketing Topics | Internet ...
(Written by Emily)
My name is Emily Janssen and I am a senior at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.? The career path I have chosen for myself is internet marketing, this is being accomplished through my major in marketing and emphasis in web presence management.? It is truly an honor to be part of the Stellar Blue Web Design team, where I will be able to further pursue and apply my knowledge in internet marketing.
There are many things that have driven my decisions to choose the career path I have.? One of these decisions is my love for service.? I truly believe that being a part of Stellar Blue allows me to share my knowledge about marketing with others, enabling them to create strategies for their business that lead to an increase of sales and thus a shared feeling of success for both the company and myself.? This feeling gives me a reason to work harder at everything I do as a marketer.
Another driving factor that has brought me to where I am, is being able to look into consumer behavior.? Consumers make purchase decisions every single day, and being able to understand and influence a part of this process is something that interests me a great deal.? The internet allows for so much insight into consumer behavior and their opinions, which is why I chose internet marketing as my area of study.
I am excited to start my future with a company that truly cares about its clients and employees.? The opportunity to be a part of such a reputable company as Stellar Blue is not one that comes often and I am glad that the opportunity came to me.? So, my journey begins as a Stellar Blue employee!
Source: http://www.stellarbluewebdesign.com/php/blog/index.php/2013/03/emily/
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Monday, March 4, 2013
Google Has a Hip-Hop Sensation Working in Its New York Office, and This Is His Google Song
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Managing 40 Apple TVs in education
Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels has shared how he's deployed and continues to manage over 40 Apple TVs in education:
We use them in classrooms, conference rooms and sound booths for AirPlay from iOS devices and recent Macs. AirPlay works great ? even across VLANs ? if you have your network set up well.
When the original Apple TV launched in 2007 with a stripped-down version of OS X Tiger and a hard drive on board, there was some hope it could be used as an ultra-low-cost Mac. Not much came of it. In 2010, Apple switched the Apple TV to iOS and streaming, and while massive media power can still be found (or hacked) therein, dreams of the commodity Mac seemed to evaporate.
While the little black boxes obviously can't replace a Mac mini -- or any Mac -- for general purpose computing, Hackett shows how the technologies it uses, including Home Sharing, can be a good solution for very specific things. And he includes both the downsides and the trade-offs.
Give it a read.
Source: 512 Pixels
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/vRMEodq1Gfo/story01.htm
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Suspect arrested in death of Mississippi mayoral candidate
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) ? The body of a slain Mississippi mayoral candidate was beaten and burned, a family member said Monday.
Marco McMillian's godfather, Carter Womack, said McMillian's family received the information from the Coahoma County coroner. Coroner Scotty Meredith declined to comment Monday, and a spokesman for the Coahoma County Sheriff's Department had no immediate comment.
But a person with direct knowledge of the investigation confirmed to The Associated Press that McMillian had some bruises and there were burns on at least one area of his body. The person wasn't authorized to publicly comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The cause of death has not been released. An autopsy was performed, but toxicology tests are pending, and authorities say it could take two weeks to get those results.
Womack said the coroner told family members that someone dragged McMillian's body under a fence and left it near a Mississippi River levee last week.
McMillian, 34, was a candidate for mayor of Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta.
"We feel that this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found," said a statement released by his campaign.
The slaying received significant attention, in part, because McMillian's campaign said he was the first openly gay, viable candidate for public office in Mississippi.
Sheriff's deputies last week charged 22-year-old Lawrence Reed with murder in the case.
An investigation began Feb. 26 after McMillian's SUV slammed head-on into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 49 near the Coahoma and Tallahatchie county lines.
Reed was driving the car, but McMillian was not in it, authorities say. McMillian's body was found the next day.
Reed was treated for injuries at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis. The hospital said he was released Saturday.
Reed was being held without bond Monday pending extradition to Mississippi.
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Associated Press writer Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tenn. Contributed to this report.
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Follow Mohr on Twitter at http://twitter.com/holbrookmohr
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/family-slain-mayoral-candidate-beaten-burned-172219581.html
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Sen. Ayotte: Door open for 'big agreement' on budget
While the White House and Congress failed to reach an agreement to avoid automatic spending cuts that began taking effect on March 1, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said she is still open to the idea of a "big agreement" to address the country's long-term fiscal challenges, as long as it addresses both tax reform and entitlement reform.
"If we're going to increase revenue again it's got to go to the debt with real entitlement reform and real tax reform, where you actually lower rates," Ayotte told me this morning on "This Week." "Absolutely I think we need to do a big agreement for the country. Because we haven't dealt with the fundamental drivers of our debt."
When asked if she would accept a larger agreement that raises tax revenues, Ayotte said she would not agree to tax increases that "increase more government," but only if they are applied to reducing the debt.
"I am willing to say if we take the form of lowering rates, so that we can focus on economic growth, and then we take a portion of that and apply it to the debt with real entitlement reform - but it has to go to the debt," Ayotte said. "This sequester has to be dealt with within existing spending and alternative cuts, and we need real entitlement reform and real tax reform. That's what we need for the country if we're going to drive down our debt and also be focused on economic growth."
White House economic adviser Gene Sperling said the sequester process is "not going to hurt as much on day one," but he said he believes the "slow grind" of the cuts' impact may force sides back to the bargaining table for a larger agreement.
"My belief is that as this pain starts to gradually spread to communities affected by military spending, to children who need mental health services, to people who care about our border security, I believe that more Republican colleagues who are concerned about this harm to their constituents will choose bipartisan compromise on revenue raising tax reform with serious entitlement reform," Sperling said this morning on "This Week."
Sperling called unwillingness by Republicans to avoid the sequester by closing tax loopholes and deductions "an unreasonable position," and said the failure to reach a deal to the avert automatic spending cuts this week was "not a win for anyone."
"This is not a win for Republicans," Sperling said. "Republicans are supposed to be for stronger national defense. This cuts our military preparedness dramatically. They're supposed to be for border security. These sequester cuts will end up meaning enough reduction in hours that would be the equivalent of 5,000 border patrol agents being cut. They're supposed to be long-term entitlement reform. This does no long-term entitlement reform."
Sperling rejected the idea that the administration could have softened the impact of the automatic spending cuts by creating more flexibility on what areas could be cut from each government agency that will be impacted by the $85 billion sequester.
"There is no way that you can move the deck chairs around in a way that will not cost our economy, as CBO projects, 750,000 jobs," Sperling said. "When you have those type of harsh spending cuts in such a short concentrated period of time, it's like saying to somebody you can cut off three of your fingers, but you can have the flexibility to choose which ones you want to cut off."
But Ayotte countered that alternative spending cuts should have been found to reduce the impact on the country.
"Why can't both sides work together to do this in a more sensible way?" Ayotte asked. "There's a whole host of ideas of how we could cut spending in a more responsible way that doesn't undermine our national security."
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Sunday, March 3, 2013
Wolf in sheep's clothing: Uncovering how deadly bacteria trick the immune system
Friday, March 1, 2013
An outbreak of tuberculosis in the skid row area of downtown Los Angeles may have exposed up to 4,500 individuals to the bacterium that causes the deadly disease and has left federal officials scrambling to intervene.
The outbreak is occurring during winter, when homeless individuals are driven to crowded shelters, when influenza is peaking and when people's vitamin D levels, typically boosted by sunlight exposure, are low. A new UCLA study offers critical insight into how various bacteria may manipulate such factors to their advantage.
In a study published online Feb. 28 in the journal Science, UCLA researchers demonstrate that certain cunning bacteria ? including the type that causes tuberculosis ? can pretend to be viruses when infecting humans, allowing them to hijack the body's immune response so that they can hide out, unhindered, inside our cells. The findings may also help explain how viral infections like the flu make us more susceptible to subsequent bacterial infections such as pneumonia.
The study is particularly relevant to tuberculosis, which kills 1.4 million people worldwide each year. In the case of the recent Los Angeles outbreak, the findings could provide clues as to how the flu and a lack of vitamin D may have given the tuberculosis bacterium an edge.
"With 8.7 million in the world falling ill with tuberculosis each year, a better understanding of how these bacteria avoid our immune system could lead to new ways to fight them and to better, more targeted treatments," said senior author Dr. Robert L. Modlin, chief of dermatology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in the UCLA Division of Life Sciences.
The protection our immune system provides against bacteria-based diseases and infections depends on the critical response of T cells ? white blood cells that play a central role in fighting infections ? and in particular on the release of a protein called interferon-gamma. Interferon-gamma utilizes the vitamin D hormone to alert and activate cells to destroy invading bacteria.
The research team found that bacteria can pretend to be viruses, triggering the immune system to launch an attack with a different protein, called interferon-beta, which is designed to fight viruses, not bacteria. Not only is interferon-beta ineffective against bacteria, but it can also block the action of interferon-gamma, to the advantage of bacteria. Further, if a real virus were to infect the body, triggering interferon-beta, it would divert the attention of the immune response, preventing an attack on the bacterial invader. The researchers say this may explain why the flu can lead to a more serious bacterial-based infection like pneumonia.
"Like a wolf in sheep's clothing, the bacteria can fool the immune system into launching an attack against the wrong type of infection, thus weakening the response against the bacteria," said first author Rosane M. B. Teles, a researcher in the dermatology division at the Geffen School of Medicine.
For the study, the team examined the mechanisms by which the virus-fighting interferon-beta protein suppresses the interferon-gamma defense response to bacterial infections, tricking the immune system into making the wrong defense choices.
The researchers studied leprosy as a model and then applied what they learned to understand tuberculosis, given that leprosy and tuberculosis are caused by related bacteria. Modlin noted that leprosy is an outstanding model for studying immune mechanisms in host defense since it presents as a clinical spectrum that correlates with the level and type of immune response of the pathogen.
The scientists first compared the genetic expression of the virus-fighting interferon-beta protein and the bacteria-fighting interferon-gamma protein in skin lesions from leprosy patients. They found that interferon-gamma was expressed in patients with the milder form of the disease and that interferon-beta was significantly increased in those with the more serious, progressive form of leprosy.
The researchers then compared the genes triggered by interferon-beta in these leprosy skin lesions with those found by two other groups of investigators in the blood of tuberculosis patients. Remarkably, there was a significant overlap. The interferon-beta genes were more frequent in both the skin lesions of leprosy patients with extensive disease and the blood of tuberculosis patients with more severe disease.
"We found this common interferon-beta gene pattern correlated with the greater extent of disease in both leprosy and tuberculosis, which are two very distinct diseases," Teles said.
Previous work by the UCLA team demonstrated that the interferon-gamma defense pathway relies on a specific mechanism involving vitamin D, a natural hormone that plays an essential role in the body's fight against infections. The current study found that interferon-beta suppressed elements involved in the interferon-gamma?triggered vitamin D pathway, preventing the immune system from killing the bacteria.
"The study raises the possibility that a decrease or increase of one of these two interferon proteins could shift the balance from mild to more serious disease," Modlin said. "We may find that therapeutic interventions to block or enhance specific interferon responses may be an effective strategy to alter the balance in favor of protection against bacterial diseases."
The new findings may indicate why, in winter, Los Angeles skid row residents are at an added disadvantage in dealing with tuberculosis ? for at least three reasons. First, because of colder weather at night, indigent homeless people tend to stay in shelters, where they live in close proximity with others, facilitating the spread of the infection. Second, due to the seasonal rise in influenza, the body's immune system could be diverted by the flu virus to produce interferon-beta, blocking an effective immune response to the tuberculosis bacteria. And finally, the drop in vitamin D levels associated with a decrease in exposure to sunlight during the winter months could diminish the ability of individuals' immune systems to kill the tuberculosis bacteria.
"With TB on the rise, this scenario could play out not only in cities in the United States but all over the world," Modlin said. "We hope that our findings may provide insight into harnessing new methods to combat TB and other bacterial infections as well."
Modlin noted that 8.7 million become ill with tuberculosis each year, and 1.4 million die from the disease. He added that an increase or decrease in one of the two interferon proteins could help explain why some people may be more resilient against or susceptible to the infection or have a more serious course of the disease.
The next step, according to Teles, is to further understand the mechanisms that bacterial pathogens use to activate interferon-beta and how bacteria can manipulate the immune system to block the potent interferon-gamma host antimicrobial responses in human infections.
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University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences: http://www.uclahealth.org/
Thanks to University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences for this article.
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