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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Residents concerned about health effects of hydrofracking
Apr. 28, 2013 ? s living in areas near natural gas operations, also known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, are concerned their illnesses may be a result of nearby drilling operations. Twenty-two percent of the participants in a small pilot study surmise that hydrofracking may be the cause of such health concerns as sinus problems, sleeping difficulties, and gastrointestinal problems.
The findings will be presented at the American Occupational Health Conference on April 28 in Orlando, Florida.
Scientists collected responses from 72 adults visiting a primary care physician's office in the hydrofracking-heavy area of Bradford County, Pa., who volunteered to complete an investigator-faciliated survey.
"Almost a quarter of participants consider natural gas operations to be a contributor to their health issues, indicating that there is clearly a concern among residents that should be addressed," says Poun? Saberi, MD, MPH, the study's principal investigator with the department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. She is also an investigator with the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) at Penn.
Within these 22 percent of responders, 13 percent viewed drilling to be the cause of their current health complaints and 9 percent were concerned that future health problems can be caused by natural gas operations. The previous health complaints by participants were thought to be anecdotal in nature as they were individual cases reported publicly only by popular media.
"What is significant about this study is that the prevalence of impressions about medical symptoms attributed to natural gas operations had not been previously solicited in Pennsylvania. This survey indicates that there is a larger group of people with health concerns than originally assumed," explains Saberi.
The survey included questions about 29 health symptoms, including those previously anecdotally reported by other residents and workers in other areas where drilling occurs. Some patient medical records were also reviewed to compare reported symptoms with those that had been previously documented. "Sinus problems, sleeping difficulties, and gastrointestinal problems were the most common symptoms reported on the Bradford survey," notes Saberi. "Of the few studied charts, there were no one-to-one correlations between the participants' reported symptoms on the survey and the presenting symptom to the medical provider in the records. This raises the possibility of communication gaps between residents with concerns and the medical community and needs further exploration. An opportunity exists to educate shale region communities and workers to report, as well as health care providers to document, the attributed symptoms as precisely as possible."
The CEET team also mapped the addresses of patients who agreed to provide them in relation to drilling to determine if proximity to drilling operations may relate to health problems.
"We hope this pilot study will guide the development of future epidemiological studies to determine whether health effects in communities in which natural gas operations are occurring is associated with air, water, and food-shed exposures and will provide a basis for health care provider education," says CEET director Trevor Penning, PhD. "The goal of science should be to protect the public and the environment before harm occurs; not simply to treat it after the damage has been done."
The Bradford County health concerns pilot study is one of three hydrofracking studies currently underway at CEET, one of 20 Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers (EHSCC) in the US, funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
CEET is also partnering with Columbia University's EHSCC to measure water quality and billable health outcomes in areas with and without hydrofracking on the Pennsylvania-New York border. Using a new mapping tool developed by Harvard University, CEET and Harvard researchers are creating maps of drilling sites, air quality, water quality, and health effects to locate possible associations. Initial studies will focus on Pennsylvania. Results of both studies are expected in early 2014. These collaborative studies are funded by pilot project funds from the respective EHSCCs, which in turn obtain their financial support from NIEHS.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/IVvBTUbZKJQ/130428230423.htm
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Monday, April 29, 2013
Obama and Putin discuss security in phone call
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin (POO'-tihn) have been discussing terrorism coordination in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.
The White House says the two leaders spoke by phone Monday. A statement says Obama expressed his "appreciation" for Russia's close cooperation after the attack.
The suspected bombers are Russian natives who immigrated to the Boston area. Russian authorities told U.S. officials before the bombings they had concerns about the family, but only revealed details of wiretapped conversations since the attack.
A White House statement said the leaders discussed future cooperation on security, including the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.
The White House also says Obama expressed condolences for a deadly hospital fire outside Moscow last week and that Obama stressed U.S. concerns over chemical weapons in Syria.
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Check out the Best Anti-Aging Products 2013 Has to Offer | Articles ...
There are lots of anti aging products around, and if you want to know which are the best ones of 2013 you have to do some searching. We?ve done some of the research for you, and in this article you will find some very effective products. Taking supplements and using skin care products to fight aging are necessary, but you must also be responsible for eating a healthy diet and getting sufficient exercise.
The reishi mushroom, a very beneficial food for your health, is contained in the New Chapter LifeShield Reishi supplement. Research has shown that reishi mushrooms have a variety of benefits. This mushroom has been used for years in Asian medicine and culture as an aid to staying youthful and full of vigor longer. Other important benefits to be derived from including the reishi mushroom in your diet include its help in lowering cholesterol levels and high blood pressure, as well as acting as an anti-inflammatory throughout your body. The reishi mushroom is also a good choice to help keep your immune system strong. A very powerful and potent strain of the reishi mushroom is used in the formulation of this supplement. You can be assured that you are receiving the maximum benefits from this natural supplement produced by LifeShield Reishi. You can probably find reishi mushrooms at Asian markets or in the Asian section of your supermarket; however, they aren?t always available or easy to locate. For this reason, it?s easier to take it in supplement form. A Probiotic Anti-Aging product from New Chapter gives you a food-based medium from natural organic foods that contains 10 probiotic strains. It also contains healthy foods such as blueberries, green tea, and organic ginger. One very important function of probiotics, besides helping us stay healthy, is maintaining the health of our digestive systems. Probiotics, however, are hard to supply to your body simply through the food you eat. When you eat, your digestion breaks down the food into the necessary nutrients your body requires for optimum health. This is why your digestive system is so important. New Chapter Probiotic Anti-Aging gives you a diversity of healthy food-based nutrients that promote good health and longevity. It contains no dairy, so it?s a good source or probiotics for people who are lactose intolerant.
Omega-3 fatty acids are one of the most important elements you want to have included in your anti-aging supplements. Taking fish oil capsules every day is a convenient method of ensuring you get sufficient Omega-3 fatty acids. Nevertheless, if you don?t like fish oil capsules, you can find other sources of Omega-3 fatty acids with a little research. These fatty acids are classed as anti-inflammatory and also help your joints and blood vessels remain strong and healthy. Another fatty acid that is instrumental to good health is Omega-6. Fortunately, it occurs in a variety of foods and we normally get what our body requires through our diet. Omega-3s are less common, unless your diet contains a lot of seafood. So, as we mentioned above, be certain that from the anti-aging products you use, you include one that has Omega-3 fatty acids.
The above are some of the best anti aging products of 2013. There are many others as well, and it?s up to you to identify your main concerns. You can reduce the amount of supplements your body needs ? but not all of them ? if you live as healthy of a life as you can, which includes exercise, and pure water. Nevertheless, due to the depletion of our soil and all the additives that are added to our foods, it is not reasonable to expect to get adequate nourishment from the food we consume.
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Obesity may influence heart function through sex hormones
Apr. 27, 2013 ? New research suggests that changes in sex hormones as seen in obesity may have possible effects on the heart. The study by researchers from Belgium, presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Copenhagen, Denmark, suggests effects on heart function in healthy men with artificially raised estrogen levels and artificially lowered testosterone levels to mimic an obese state.
Estradiol, an estrogen, is primarily known as a female hormone but it also circulates at very low levels in men. Testosterone is converted to estradiol by the enzyme aromatase, the activity of which might be increased in obesity leading to raised estradiol and reduced testosterone.
To determine whether obesity might alter heart function via changes in sex hormones, Drs Maarten De Smet and colleagues at Ghent University in Belgium recruited 20 healthy men aged 20-40 and used an aromatase inhibitor and an estrogen patch to artificially alter the hormone levels to mimic sex hormone concentrations in obesity (high estradiol and low testosterone) vs contrast by an aromatase inhibitor (low estradiol, high testosterone). Prof Dr T De Backer, Cardiologist, assessed the heart function before and seven days after the intervention using ultrasonographic imaging with strain analysis, which measures the deformation of the heart between the resting and contracted states.
The men with obesity-related changes in sex hormones exhibited altered heart function. At baseline the global circumferential strain was -17.1% +/-3.9, which decreased significantly to -14% +/-2.5 (p=0.01). The contrasting group did not show any difference.
By artificially altering sex hormones in a small number of healthy men, Drs De Smet and colleagues have shown that an altered sex hormone profile as seen in obesity might be relevant for heart function. Adequately powered clinical trials with sufficient duration may establish the role of sex hormones in the heart function of obese men.
Maarten De Smet, Masters student in Medicine at Ghent University, Belgium, and first author said:
"Obesity is a major contributor to heart disease. By giving an aromatase inhibitor and estrogen to healthy men we mimicked the effect of sex hormones in obesity alone, in isolation from the rest of the obese metabolic state.
"In order to pump blood around the body the heart must fill with blood and then contract, pushing the blood out. We found that after increasing the estrogen levels and decreasing the testosterone levels in men for one week the deformation of the left heart chamber was significantly altered.
"Because the contributing factors to obesity, as well as the underlying biology, are so complicated it's a real challenge to tease apart one single aspect, so we think this study is of particular interest. As these results are from a small number of healthy men over one week, we hope to investigate sex hormone changes and the heart in the obese in the long term."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Society of Endocrinology, via AlphaGalileo.
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Sunday, April 28, 2013
Don't blame Canada: Former ambassador to Iran on Argo, America, and nukes
Canada's envoy to Tehran at the time of the Islamic revolution and the US hostage crisis, says Argo disappointed him and that he's worried about where Iran's nuclear program might lead.
Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor and his wife Pat, pose for photographers at the premiere of the film Argo in Washington, Oct. 2012. Taylor, who protected Americans at great personal risk during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, has achieved some name recognition in the US since the 2012 movie 'Argo' swept theaters and the Academy Awards.
Cliff Owen/AP/File
EnlargeFormer Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor is neither the James Bond lookalike he hoped might portray him in the Hollywood blockbuster "Argo" nor is he quite the Austin Powers double he says might have been a more accurate choice.
Skip to next paragraph Ariel ZirulnickMiddle East Editor
Ariel Zirulnick is the Monitor's Middle East editor, overseeing regional coverage both for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She is also a contributor to the international desk's terrorism and security blog.?
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But he's achieved some name recognition in the US since the 2012 movie swept theaters and the Academy Awards, and he has plenty to say about Iran in 1979 and the country it has become since.?
Mr. Taylor was Canada's ambassador to Tehran in 1979 when the US embassy there was stormed and dozens of Americans were taken hostage. Six Americans escaped and spent months holed up with him, waiting for their extraction.
Those months are the premise of the Ben Affleck-directed movie, which Taylor mildly says took ?a bit of poetic license.?
Speaking before a gathering of the New England Canada Business Council in Boston yesterday, Taylor, who now lives in New York, joked that after friends saw "Argo" at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, they called him and said, ?I thought Canada was involved.?
According to Taylor, he replied, ?That?s odd, So did I.?
As the tense months of being trapped inside the embassy wore on, Taylor tried to reassure the Americans that they would be home by Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then the Super Bowl. He warned the US that ?they?re going to wonder if Washington forgot about them.?
Taylor revealed little about the actual operation that got the six men and women safely back to the United States. But, he joked, at least the movie showed that he ?opened the front door of the embassy with great dexterity.?
Iran then
When Taylor arrived in Tehran in 1977, ?the country was booming.?
There were rumors that Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi ? more commonly referred to as simply ?the Shah? ? was preparing to buy Pan American Airways. It did not seem like the ?stalwart of the West? was going anywhere.
For all the blame heaped on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for not predicting the Islamic Revolution, almost nobody saw it coming, he said. Afterward, the Ayatollah?s secular advisers told Taylor that even they didn?t expect the Shah?s government to fall like it did. ?
Revolutionary fervor did not sweep up the whole country the way it seemed to be portrayed in "Argo." And Taylor said a great disappointment for him was the way the movie portrayed Iranians, some of whom became ?marvelous friends? with him during his posting in Tehran.
?The movie was too heavy handed,? he said. ?It gave no idea that there is another side to the Iranian character. Everybody isn?t on the street. Everybody isn?t part of the revolution.?
Too many sanctions, too little talking
He is on board with the growing chorus of voices in Washington urging the Obama administration to ease up on its sanctions-heavy approach to negotiations with Iran although he acknowledges that Iran needs to give ground too.
Sometimes sanctions work, he says, citing South Africa during the apartheid era, but ?sometimes they strengthen resolve.?
When asked his opinion of whether Tehran has nuclear weapon ambitions, he cautions that ?Iran is an opaque society,? and there?s too little information to guess.
?I think they?ve got some military use in the back of their mind,? he says. ?But they don?t want to destroy themselves ? Maybe they are working at capabilities, but not necessarily producing [a nuclear weapon].?
That the military option for halting Iran?s nuclear development is ?on the table? worries Taylor, who points to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as cautionary for anyone considering going to war with Iran.
"A bombing mission would be a fatal error. It would solve nothing,? he says. ?It would postpone [Iran?s nuclear program] for two to three years,? but nothing more, because Iran?s nuclear facilities are too dispersed.
He says, ?I wake up every morning hoping [the military option] is still on the table? ? instead of being used.
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Internet Marketing Is A Wonderful Way To Enhance Revenue ? Run ...
Regardless of whether you?re planning to promote goods, providers, or something that is in addition entirely, the internet is the best way to industry. The internet enables you to reach a huge audience, often for little to no expense. In this post, you?ll find some tips that will help you make the online marketing attempts a success.
It?s important to use classic marketing techniques. You can utilize stuff like pencils or caffeine cups with the business name and emblem on them. Supply them free of charge when buyers join email offers using your web site. By doing this your prospects are certain to get special electronic mail signals of your stuff, and you also are marketing your business.
End generating your banner advertising appear to be you?re just directing awareness of one thing. By developing appealing advertising banners, it is possible to increase the click thru rate and obtain more traffic to your site. Banners and ads that include a trivia issue linked to your website?s market
If you require some help together with your internet marketing then you could constantly see your neighborhood library and obtain some great books on marketing. You may also down load totally free or lower-price e-publications on-line that should certainly provide you with a great idea of methods to showcase your merchandise.
One particular excellent internet marketing process is to offer you incentives to perform repeatedly customers. Replicate clients currently demonstrate exceptional customer loyalty, and an online business that incentives these kinds of commitment are only able to strengthen it. Including the tiniest prize includes a beneficial effect. Delight bonuses and obviously-presented benefits have their advantages. Incorporating each techniques can offer the greatest results.
An essential tip relating to Website marketing is usually to invest a section of your own site?s homepage possibly indicating that website visitors save your site, or offer a button that may immediately combine it with their web browser. This is important in case you have a Web address that may be challenging to bear in mind, as well as to improve your visitation return rate.
Customers want to think that they are certainly not simply being disregarded and that they are important to you personally, which is why it is vital that you respond to any e-mail, comments, or concept table blogposts in a timely manner. If you dismiss your clients it is one method to reduce organization.
Offer your website website visitors a free demo of a assistance or perhaps a cost-free example of any product. Totally free trial samples and trial offers will bring in a great deal of new visitors to your website, and if your merchandise of service is excellent, after folks have used it out they may possibly place a purchase.
Think about a banner ad ad for your web site. Some people don?t like banner ad ads, but should you it right you may have a good way to take targeted traffic to your web site. The important thing into a excellent ad is twofold: you want the right design and style and also the right site to promote on. Should you the two issues you?re confirmed effects.
Range out your competitors? websites to find out the best way to increase your own internet marketing attempts. If you take notices on what the competitors does effectively? from site the navigation to keyword utilization?you can glean important ideas that allows you to further improve your personal internet site and advertise your business.
Emails you give for your clients en masse either can be informative or ad by nature. It is actually not really easy to blend both uses. In fact, combined email messages make good internet marketing feeling. Introducing info to commercials will keep readers from contemplating you as a higher-strain owner, although incorporating advertisements to details reminds followers that you have merchandise for sale.
To make sure you choose the right internet sites to exchange hyperlinks with, check out the cache time of the webpage your link will appear on. The cache day reveals the past time Yahoo visited the page. You can examine the cache time by keying ?cache:Website url? into Yahoo and google, and replacing the Link using a link to the web page your blog will likely be showing on. If Yahoo and google hasn?t checked out the page in a long time, it is likely you won?t reward significantly in the link exchange.
Use Craigslist to market your website, but make sure you get it done from the proper way. Spot advertisements from the suitable groups because they could easily get flagged if they are placed in the incorrect spot. also be sure to position advertisements in towns that are well-liked and effectively inhabited.
Residual income ? cash you will make continuously with out work ? might be essential in helping any online business. You ought to locate affiliate marketing online programs that focus on continuity so that you can develop a residual income to your site. These courses are experts in services with steady client turn over to make sure choose-outs are stored balanced by new prefer-ins.
An important hint relating to Web marketing is usually to hand out some thing totally free. This really is valuable as you may possibly see an influx of brand new visitors who might not have normally go to your web site. It can possibly be tied up directly into subscribing to a e-newsletter, which will give you much more continued publicity.
Utilize a excellent user friendly writing a blog software that won?t need a great deal of energy and capabilities to preserve. Discover plug-ins for your blog site that can add more additional benefit to the visitors, though make sure you not overdue it. Keep the blog site customized to the goods and your followers for best usefulness in ranking right out of the audience.
Including a phone number for your website?s contact info might be a good advertising strategy. Some site visitors enjoy the option for conversing with a merchant vocally. Some of your significantly less tech-smart site visitors might require assistance with your site. Make certain that the phone quantity you include, is set up expertly. Whomever solutions the telephone calls, need to do so in a businesslike way and there should be an appropriate tone of voice-email method in place, to be able to capture away-hours calls.
Include a website link on every webpage of your own internet site that would enable individuals to discuss any details they appreciate making use of their good friends by means of e-mail or on social network sites. Enabling users to do that is essentially marketing for no charge by any means.
Facebook or myspace is an extremely great promotional tool and you need to make the most of that. You can start a Fb group for the enterprise and let each of the consumers know what is happening with your website and supply hyperlinks. Also you can supply discount rates which are only available to Facebook or twitter consumers.
You don?t must actually promote major-spending budget merchandise or offer information and facts that?s wholly exclusive from everything else out there. You need to simply keep to the suitable marketing actions so that you can convert your excellent tips into marketable ideas. If you can keep to the assistance you go through here, you may make it a marketing expert.
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Burger King 1Q earnings soar, revenue shrinks
Burger King's first-quarter earnings more than doubled even though revenue fell, as the fast-food chain trimmed several restaurant-related expenses.
The Miami-based company had warned earlier this month that sales at established restaurants were expected to fall during the quarter, and they wound up declining 1.4 percent. That includes a 3 percent drop in the United States and Canada.
Burger King Worldwide Inc. said Friday its net income rose to $35.8 million, or 10 cents per share, in the quarter that ended March 31. That's up from $14.3 million, or 4 cents per share, in the previous year's quarter when it was still private.
The company previously said adjusted earnings totaled 17 cents per share in the most recent quarter.
Revenue fell about 42 percent to $327.7 million. Analysts expected $305.8 million, according to FactSet.
Total restaurant expenses, which include things like food costs and payroll expenses, fell nearly 70 percent in the quarter to $108.1 million.
Burger King has been undergoing a revamp since it was purchased and taken private in 2010 by 3G Capital, a private investment firm run by Brazilian billionaires. The company has been selling more restaurants to franchisees, a move that lowers overhead costs. Instead of booking sales from those restaurants, that means Burger King would collect franchise fees instead.
In the first quarter, the company's restaurant revenues tumbled 69 percent to $121.1 million, but its franchise and property revenues rose 19 percent to $206.6 million.
Burger King's selling, general and administrative expenses also fell about 30 percent to $66.7 million in the quarter.
3G Capital also has slashed costs, signed international expansion deals and changed the U.S. menu to appeal to a wider audience. The moves came ahead of the company's return to public trading the New York Stock Exchange last June.
The company also is adjusting its strategy to focus on more menu deals, such as an offer for a $1.29 Jr. Whopper. McDonald's has been particularly aggressive in touting its Dollar Menu to boost traffic at a time when the restaurant industry is barely growing. Wendy's also revamped its value menu recently.
Burger King says its efforts to revamp the brand remain on track. But CEO Bernardo Hees, a 3G partner, is moving on later this year to head Heinz, another 3G investment. Chief Financial Officer Daniel Schwartz, also a 3G partner, will succeed Lees as CEO at Burger King.
Burger King shares finished at $18.06 on Thursday. They have traded between $12.91 to $20.20 since relisting.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/burger-king-1q-earnings-soar-revenue-shrinks-122545739.html
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Apple in talks with Nuance to bring Swype to iOS
By Terry Daley ROME, April 27 (Reuters) - Udinese beat Cagliari 1-0 on Saturday thanks to a goal from Roberto Pereyra to move above Inter Milan into fifth place in Serie A, which brings a Europa League spot for next season. Pereyra's curling strike after 56 minutes saw Francesco Guidolin's side move up to 54 points, one ahead of Inter who visit relegation-threatened Palermo on Sunday (1300 GMT). Cagliari, who had striker Mauricio Pinilla sent off in added time, remain 10th on 42 points, two points and one place above Bologna, who drew 1-1 at Atalanta in the other early kickoff. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-talks-nuance-bring-swype-ios-151032725.html
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
U.S. government may not hit debt limit until October: analysts
By Rachelle Younglai
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States might not hit the statutory limit on its debt until October, a policy research group said on Friday, giving Republican lawmakers more time to extract spending cuts from the Obama administration in return for extending the borrowing cap.
After giving into Democratic demands in December to raise taxes and later working with them to avoid a government shutdown, Republicans have been gearing up to use the debt limit as leverage to seek fresh budget cuts and changes to the tax code.
The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank that analyzes the Treasury's daily and monthly cash flows, had expected the federal government to hit the congressionally-set limit on its debt sometime between early-August and mid-September.
But stronger-than-expected revenues and deeper-than-anticipated budget cuts mean the ceiling on borrowing probably will not be reach until sometime between mid-August and mid-October, the group said on its website on Friday.
"October is a nasty month," BPC economic policy director Steve Bell said in an interview, noting that major government payments are due in October.
If Congress does not raise the borrowing cap before the Treasury hits the limit, the government will no longer be able to borrow money to pay its bills, including interest on its bonds, raising the risk of a damaging debt default.
In an attempt to avoid being blamed for a default, Republicans in the House of Representatives are pushing legislation to require the Treasury to pay bondholders and Social Security retirement benefits before other bills if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling on time.
The BPC said its forecast could change depending on economic conditions and when updated financial information became available.
Nearly $90 billion may soon be pumped into government coffers by the now-profitable government-controlled housing finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to account for deferred tax assets that were written down.
The think tank, however, does not think the disbursement to the Treasury will be that high. "We do expect that there will be a payment of some size in June but it is our opinion that the number is more likely to be in the $20 billion range and not in the rumored $100 billion range," Bell said.
The Treasury has said it could not forecast an exact date for when Congress must raise the debt ceiling due to delayed tax filings and uncertainty about the effect of the government budget cuts.
(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Paul Simao)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-government-may-not-hit-debt-limit-until-215216483.html
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Fish win fights on strength of personality
Apr. 26, 2013 ? When predicting the outcome of a fight, the big guy doesn't always win suggests new research on fish. Scientists at the University of Exeter and Texas A&M University found that when fish fight over food, it is personality, rather than size, that determines whether they will be victorious. The findings suggest that when resources are in short supply personality traits such as aggression could be more important than strength when it comes to survival.
The study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, found that small fish were able to do well in contests for food against larger fish provided they were aggressive. Regardless of their initial size, it was the fish that tended to have consistently aggressive behaviour -- or personalities -- that repeatedly won food and as a result put on weight.
Dr Alastair Wilson from Biosciences at the University of Exeter said: "We wondered if we were witnessing a form of Napoleon, or small man, syndrome. Certainly our study indicates that small fish with an aggressive personality are capable of defeating their larger, more passive counterparts when it comes to fights over food. The research suggests that personality can have far reaching implications for life and survival."
The sheepshead swordtail fish (Xiphophorus birchmanni) fish were placed in pairs in a fish tank, food was added and their behaviour was captured on film. The feeding contest trials were carried out with both male and female fish. The researchers found that while males regularly attacked their opponent to win the food, females were much less aggressive and rarely attacked.
In animals, personality is considered to be behaviour that is repeatedly observed under certain conditions. Major aspects of personality such as shyness or aggressiveness have previously been characterised and are thought to have important ecological significance. There is also evidence to suggest that certain aspects of personality can be inherited. Further work on whether winning food through aggression could ultimately improve reproductive success will shed light on the heritability of personality traits.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Exeter, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Alastair J Wilson, Andrew Grimmer, Gil G. Rosenthal. Causes and consequences of contest outcome: aggressiveness, dominance and growth in the sheepshead swordtail, Xiphophorus birchmanni. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s00265-013-1540-7
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/yQOUDvwPT-0/130426115454.htm
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Jennifer Rubin calls on GOP to stop ?clinging? to Reagan
It's generally understood that in the Fox News and Glenn Beck breakup, Fox was the dumper and Beck the dumpee. But, in most breakups where the couple shares a social circle, neither party wants a reputation as the dumpee. Beck says he's the one who wanted to leave -- because the network was so depressing. "I remember feeling, 'If you do not leave now, you won?t leave with your soul intact,'" Beck said Friday, according to Forbes' Jeff Bercovici. Roger Ailes tried to talk him out of it. "Roger said to me, 'You're not going to leave.' And I said, 'I am. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jennifer-rubin-calls-gop-stop-clinging-reagan-145038567.html
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Friday, April 26, 2013
Officials: Dead bomber name in terrorism database
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The federal government added the name of the dead Boston Marathon bombing suspect to a terrorist database 18 months before the deadly explosions, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The CIA made the request to add Tamerlan Tsarnaev's name to the terrorist database after the Russian government contacted the agency with concerns that he had become a follower of radical Islam. About six months earlier, the FBI had separately investigated Tsarnaev, also at Russia's request, but the FBI found no ties to terrorism, officials said.
The new disclosure that Tsarnaev was included within a huge, classified database of known and suspected terrorists before the attacks was expected to drive congressional inquiries in coming weeks about whether the Obama administration adequately investigated tips from Russia that Tsarnaev had posed a security threat. Shortly after the bombings, U.S. officials said the intelligence community had no information about threats to the marathon before the April 15 explosions.
Tsarnaev died Friday in a police shootout hours before his younger brother, Dzhokhar, was discovered hiding in a boat in a suburban back yard.
The terrorist database is called TIDE, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. Analysts at the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center submit names and even partial names into TIDE. About a year ago, there were some 745,000 people listed in the database. Intelligence analysts scour TIDE, trying to establish connections and update files as new intelligence is uncovered.
For entries with a full name, date of birth and intelligence indicating a reasonable suspicion that a person is a terrorist or has terror ties, the person's name is sent to a terror watch list, which feeds into lists like the one that bans known or suspected terrorists from traveling on planes.
Officials say they never found the type of derogatory information on Tsarnaev that would have elevated his profile among counterterrorism investigators and placed him on the terror watch list.
Five days after the U.S. determined who was allegedly behind the deadly Boston marathon terror attacks, Washington is piecing together what happened and whether there were any unconnected dots buried in U.S. government files that, if connected, could have prevented the bombings.
Lawmakers who were briefed by the FBI said they have more questions than answers about the investigation of Tsarnaev. U.S. officials were expected to brief the Senate on the investigation Thursday.
"The review is just beginning, but I haven't seen any red flags thus far," said Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee and was briefed on the investigation Wednesday. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., however, said lawmakers intend to pursue whether there was a breakdown in information-sharing.
U.S. officials described to the AP what the government knew about Tsarnaev since he was first placed on the intelligence community's radar 18 months ago. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation.
Russia's internal security service, the FSB, sent information to the FBI about Tamerlan Tsarnaev on March 4, 2011. The Russians told the FBI that Tsarnaev, an ethnically Chechen Russian immigrant living in the Boston area, was a follower of radical Islam and had changed drastically since 2010. Because of the subsequent FBI inquiry, Tsarnaev's name was added to a Homeland Security Department database used by U.S. officials at the border to help screen people coming in and out of the U.S. That database is called the Treasury Enforcement Communications System, or TECS.
The FBI's Boston office opened a preliminary review of Tsarnaev and searched government databases for potentially terror-related communications. Investigators looked into whether Tsarnaev used online sites that promoted radical activity. They interviewed Tsarnaev and his family members but found nothing connecting him to terror activity. The FBI shared that information with Russia and also asked for more information on Tsarnaev, but never heard back. The FBI's review into Tsarnaev was closed in June 2011.
Then, in late September 2011, Russia separately contacted the CIA with nearly identical concerns about Tsarnaev. The Russians provided two possible birthdates for him and a variation of how his name might be spelled, as well as the spelling in the Russian-style Cyrillic alphabet.
The CIA determined that Tsarnaev should be included in TIDE, and the National Counterterrorism Center added it into the database. The spelling of Tsarnaev's name in TIDE was not the same as the spelling the FBI used in its investigation. The CIA also shared this information with other federal agencies in October.
In January 2012, Tsarnaev traveled to Russia and returned to the U.S. in July. Three days before he left for Russia, the TECS database generated an alert on Tsarnaev. That alert was shared with a Customs and Border Protection officer who is a member of the FBI's Boston joint terrorism task force. By that time, the FBI's investigation into Tsarnaev had been closed for nearly six months because the FBI uncovered no evidence that he was tied to terror groups.
On Jan. 21, 2012, the airline on which Tsarnaev was traveling misspelled his name when it submitted its list of passengers to the U.S. government for security screening. Airlines are required to provide the list of passengers on international flights so the U.S. can check their names through government databases, including the terrorist watch list. Because his name was misspelled, there was not another alert like there was three days earlier.
In July 2012, Tsarnaev returned to the U.S., and another alert was generated in TECS. This information was again shared with the Customs and Border Protection officer on the FBI's Boston joint terrorism task force. But because the FBI had closed its investigation into Tsarnaev a year earlier, there was no reason to be suspicious of his travels to Russia.
"Later on, these agencies will be judged," said Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "But right now, it's way too soon to criticize or to start making political arguments or who failed or whatever."
___
Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.
___
Follow Eileen Sullivan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/esullivanap
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/officials-dead-bomber-name-terrorism-database-224317195.html
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Nanofibers Build Stronger, Tougher Bikes and Planes
Just because something?s tough doesn?t mean it?s strong. In fact, finding materials that are both tough and strong is one of the biggest obstacles facing those who design everything from bridges to bicycles and bullet-proof vests.
But a new nanofiber from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) could be the well-rounded material long sought after by engineers. This structural nanofiber ? a type of synthetic polymer related to acrylic ? fulfills both the strength and toughness requirements needed for building objects that are simultaneously resilient and light-weight.
In structural materials, strength and toughness are usually mutually exclusive qualities, with strength often occurring at the expense of toughness. Strength refers to a material?s ability to carry a load. A material?s toughness refers to the amount of energy needed to break it.
Take, for example, a ceramic plate. It can carry quite a bit of food to the dinner table, but if you drop it on the way there, it will shatter. Ceramic plates are strong, not tough.
A rubber ball, on the other hand, can easily be squished out of shape, but it?s hard to break. Rubber balls are tough, though not particularly strong.
But the new process discovered by Yuris Dzenis, professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at UNL, and his colleagues creates a structural nanomaterial that is both tough and strong.
The technique, known as electrospinning, involves applying high voltage to a polymer solution until a small jet of liquid ejects, resulting in a continuous length of nanofiber.
Dzenis and his team knew that making their material thinner would also make it stronger. However, they were surprised to learn that thinning out the nanofiber also made it tougher.
Dzenis suggested that this added toughness could be a result of the nanofiber?s low crystallinity. Most advanced fibers are high in crystallinity, meaning that they have a very rigid and clearly defined internal structure.
But the new nanofiber is structurally unorganized. Its amorphous regions allow for more slipping in the material?s molecular chains, allowing it to absorb more energy without breaking. This toughness makes the nanofiber a great candidate for use as a building composite.
?If structural materials were tougher, one could make products more lightweight and still be very safe,? said Dzenis.
Airplanes, for example, are made of many composite materials that, if broken, could lead to devastating crashes. To compensate for the composite?s lack of toughness, engineers use more of these materials, making airplanes safer, but also much heavier.
Body armor is another example of a product that could be improved upon with the help of this new advancement in nanotechnology.
?To stop the bullet, you need the material to be able to absorb energy before failure, and that?s what our nanofibers will do,? Dzenis said.
?Whatever is made of composites can benefit from our nanofibers."
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Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nanofibers-build-stronger-tougher-bikes-planes-214702375.html
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Oldest living ex-big leaguer turns 102 in Cuba
Associated Press Sports
updated 3:19 p.m. ET April 25, 2013
(Eds: With AP Photos.)
Associated Press
HAVANA (AP) - Put another candle on the very crowded birthday cake of Conrado Marrero, the oldest living former major league player.
The Cuban pitcher celebrated his 102nd birthday Thursday at his modest Havana apartment surrounded by family and friends, an unlit Cuban cigar in his mouth and a baseball cap on his head.
He was given an enormous blue and white cake, and savored a glass of wine and a sip of Bucanero, Cuba's domestic beer. Marrero smiled as his family applauded and smothered him in hugs.
In addition to his longevity, the former Washington Senator has much to celebrate this year. After a long wait, he finally received a $20,000 payout from Major League Baseball, granted to old-timers who played between 1947 and 1979.
The money had been held up since 2011 because of issues surrounding the 51-year-old U.S. embargo on Cuba, which prohibits most bank transfers to the Communist-run island. But the funds finally arrived in two parts, one at the end of last year, and the second a few months ago, according to Marrero's family.
Steve Rogers, a former Expos pitcher who is now an official at the Major League Baseball Players Association, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the funds were delivered to Marrero by hand, and with Washington's approval.
"Everything that he was entitled to has now been delivered to him. We found a way to get the funds to him," he said. "It was personally delivered and it was all sanctioned by the Treasury Department."
Rogers has followed Marrero's case closely and says it was an honor to be a part of the effort to get him the money he deserved.
"The oldest living major leaguer," Rogers marveled. "You tip your cap and say, you were from a different era but you played the same game. It is special to be a part of his life."
Marrero's family has used some of the money to buy him a new ventilator and bed, as well as wine, ham, cigars, juice and other delicacies that would be outside his budget, said Marrero's grandson, Rogelio. Like most Cuban pensioners, Marrero receives less than $20 from the state each month.
"My grandfather was always very particular about what he would eat," Rogelio said Wednesday as relatives prepared for the birthday. "Thanks to this we can buy him peach juice, which is his favorite."
These days, Marrero is hard of hearing, blind and has considerable trouble speaking. He spends much of the day sleeping or listening to Cuban ballgames on the radio.
But he still perks up when asked about his glory days, demonstrating how to throw a slider and reminiscing about long-ago confrontations with Ted Williams and other big league legends.
"All the batters were the same to me," Marrero said. "But I had more trouble with the lefties."
When he heard the name Larry Doby - the Hall of Fame Cleveland Indians outfielder who was the first black player in the American League - Marrero's face contorted in mock frustration.
"My grandfather has never forgotten how Doby hit three home runs against him in a single day," Rogelio explained. "He always says Doby was the guy who hit the best against him."
At 5-foot-5 and 158 pounds, Marrero relied on guile to get batters out, compiling a 39-40 record and a 3.67 ERA in five seasons with the Senators from 1950 to 1954.
"Connie Marrero had a windup that looked like a cross between a windmill gone berserk and a mallard duck trying to fly backwards," former big league star Felipe Alou once said of the diminutive Cuban, according to a biography of Marrero by the Society for American Baseball Research.
Marrero was born on April 25, 1911 in the small town of Sagua la Grande in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, and he took his time getting into organized ball.
He played in amateur and semi-pro events in the early 1930s, raising eyebrows with his vicious curve and slider. In 1938, he joined a Cienfuegos team that was sponsored by a local men's clothing store, and which was about to become part of a budding Cuban league.
By the time he reached the big leagues, Marrero was already 39, an age when most players have long since retired. But he made the most of his opportunity, even being named to the 1951 All-Star team.
After his stint in the big leagues, Marrero came back to Cuba, ending his career with the Havana Sugar Kings in 1957. Two years later, Fidel Castro's rebels swept into power. Marrero became a coach and roving instructor, working well into his 80s.
Even at 102, he continues to be interested in baseball and counts himself a fan of Cienfuegos, the team that is leading the Cuban league at the moment.
But Marrero's true love is great-granddaughter Sandra. When the 12-year-old returned home from school Wednesday, the day before the birthday, Marrero reached out to take her hand and kiss it.
"Sandra, Sandra," he repeated as she leaned down to embrace him.
---
Associated Press writer Paul Haven contributed to this report.
---
Follow Anne-Marie Garcia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AnneMarie279
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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??DPS: Kevin Millar joins Dan Patrick to discuss if there's anything that could change Derek Jeter's legacy.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51665585/ns/sports-baseball/
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Get a Terrifying, First-Hand Look at What It's Like to Ride a 15-Foot-Tall Bike
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New Kepler exoplanets 'best candidates' for hosting life
Data from NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission has revealed two small, potentially rocky planets within their star's habitable zone.?
This undated handout artist concept provided by Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows the newly discovered planets named Kepler-62e and -f. Scientists using NASA's Kepler telescope have found two distant planets that are in the right place and are the right size for potential life.
Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics/AP
EnlargeThis might be the most exciting exoplanet news yet. An international team of scientists analyzing data from NASA?s Kepler mission has found a planetary system with two small, potentially rocky planets that lie within the habitable zone of their star. The star, Kepler-62, is a bit smaller and cooler than our Sun, and is home to a five-planet system. Two of the worlds, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f are the smallest exoplanets yet found in a habitable zone, and they might both be covered in water or ice, depending on what kind of atmosphere they might have.
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?Imagine looking through a telescope to see another world with life just a few million miles from your own. Or, having the capability to travel between them on a regular basis. I can?t think of a more powerful motivation to become a space-faring society,? said Harvard astronomer Dimitar Sasselov, who is co-author of a new paper describing the discovery.
Kepler-62 in the constellation Lyra, and is about 1,200 light-years from Earth.
62e is 1.61 times Earth?s size, circles the star in 122.4 (Earth) days. 62f is 1.4 times the size of Earth, and orbits its star in 267.3 days. Previously, the smallest planet with known radius inside a habitable zone was Kepler-22b, with a radius of 2.4 times that of the Earth.
A third planet in another star system was also announced at a press briefing today. Kepler-69c is 70 percent larger than the size of Earth, and orbits in the habitable zone of a star similar to our Sun. Researchers are uncertain about the composition of Kepler-69c, but astronomer Thomas Barclay from the BAER Institute said its closer orbit of 242 days around a Sun-like star means it is likely more like a super-Venus rather than a super-Earth.
The team says that while the sizes of Kepler 62e and 62f are known, their mass and densities are not. However, every planet found in their size range so far has been rocky, like Earth.
?These planets are unlike anything in our solar system. They have endless oceans,? said lead author Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. ?There may be life there, but could it be technology-based like ours? Life on these worlds would be under water with no easy access to metals, to electricity, or fire for metallurgy. Nonetheless, these worlds will still be beautiful blue planets circling an orange star ? and maybe life?s inventiveness to get to a technology stage will surprise us.?
As the warmer of the two worlds, Kepler-62e would have a bit more clouds than Earth according to computer models. More distant Kepler-62f would need the greenhouse effect from plenty of carbon dioxide to warm it enough to host an ocean. Otherwise, it might become an ice-covered snowball.
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Flooding turns spotlight on insurance | Fox 59 News ? fox59.com
Families continue cleaning their homes after major flooding across the area.
State officials encourage people, who have damage due to severe weather and/or flooding, to report it. People can go online and report their damage. They can go to:?https://myoracle.in.gov/hs/damage/ia-public.do?method=active&incidentId=IA20130419121922.
It is unclear whether state officials will ask for federal assistance. State officials want to collect as much information from residents as possible. They want people to report damage sooner rather than later.
Steve Powell lives in Tipton. His master bedroom was flooded on Friday. He cleaned his home?over the weekend -like many of his neighbors. On Monday, people continued cleaning their homes and placing piles of furniture outside. Powell has flood insurance.
??I got (the) carpet. (The) bed (was) saved (and) all the clothing. I don?t know if we?re going to have to rip out the bathroom,? Powell said.
?Powell has spoken with his adjuster. He has?had a?number of dryers in his master bedroom since Saturday.
?Deana Montgomery was rescued from her home on Friday. She lives close to Powell.? She was one of about 33 people who were rescued from her home.
?Montgomery has flood insurance as well.
??It took me a good 24 hours to get my head wrapped around what we needed to do to get started,? Montgomery said.
??We?ve had a couple floods before, but nothing this drastic,? she said.
?The Indiana Department of Insurance said people should go online to www.floodsmart.gov?for more information about flood insurance.
?Laura?Wegmann is the communications director for the department. She said people should be prepared before and after it floods. Whether people live within a flood plain or not, she said, the website will inform people about getting?coverage based on their address.
Wegmann?said if people purchase a policy today, it would take 30 days before the person has coverage.
?It?s best to document very carefully all your damages (and to) make sure to take photos. (You should) write down the object serial number and make and model and that sort of thing,??Wegmann said.
Powell said that is what his adjuster told him to do.
?He sent (us) the paperwork to fill out and the task falls upon us to document everything and send (it to) him so he can file the report,? Powell said.
Wegmann said people need to know that homeowner?s insurance does not cover flood loss.
Source: http://fox59.com/2013/04/22/flooding-turns-spotlight-on-insurance/
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Scientists cage dead zebras in Africa to understand the spread of anthrax
Apr. 22, 2013 ? Scavengers might not play as key a role in spreading anthrax through wildlife populations as previously assumed, according to findings from a small study conducted in Etosha National Park in northern Namibia.
Wildlife managers currently spend large amounts of money and time to control anthrax outbreaks by preventing scavengers from feeding on infected carcasses.
The effort might be ill spent, according to results published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology by an international consortium of researchers led by Steven Bellan, an ecologist at The University of Texas at Austin.
Carrion produced by anthrax deaths feeds many scavengers, including jackals, hyena, vultures, marabou storks and occasionally even lions. These scavengers have evolved to be able to digest infected carrion without contracting the infection. Herbivorous animals more vulnerable to anthrax include zebra, springboks, elephants and wildebeest.
It has been thought that scavengers change the environment in which the anthrax bacteria are living by opening herbivores' carcasses, enabling more production of spores -- the infectious life stage of the anthrax bacteria.
"The hypothesis is that when a carcass is intact, the anthrax bacteria are forced into a kind of death match with putrefying bacteria from the gastrointestinal tract," said Bellan, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of biologist Lauren Ancel Meyers. "But when the body is opened to the air, either by a scavenger or the hemorrhaging from all bodily orifices that occurs at death, the anthrax bacteria can escape that competition and more successfully produce spores."
According to this hypothesis, the scavenging also allows the carcasses' bodily fluids to leak into the soil, leading to more spores contaminating the soil. Combined, this might increase the likelihood of spread to vulnerable herbivores as they move and eat among the grasses.
In order to test the hypothesis, the researchers found seven zebra and one wildebeest that had just died in the wild from anthrax infection. All of the carcasses were left where they fell, but four were protected from scavengers by electrified cage exclosures. The other four were left completely open to the elements.
"The goal was to allow the carcasses to exist in as natural a state as possible, while preventing scavenging," Bellan said.
Samples were then taken at regular intervals to see whether there was greater anthrax spore production in the scavenged carcasses and in the nearby soil.
The researchers found that anthrax sporulation and contamination happened to a similar degree at both the scavenged and unscavenged carcasses.
"It appears that the anthrax bacteria can survive for some time in the carcass even though it may be competing with other bacteria," said Bellan. "It also appears that fluids can escape from the carcass into the soil via mechanisms other than scavenging or through hemorrhages occurring at the time of death. It looks like bloating caused by gases produced during putrefaction and maggot feeding activity are capable of independently rupturing carcass skin."
Bellan cautions that the experiment was a limited one, conducted on a small number of samples. But he said it does suggest a need for some re-evaluation of practices aimed at keeping scavengers away from anthrax carcasses.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Texas at Austin.
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Journal Reference:
- S. E. Bellan, P. C. B. Turnbull, W. Beyer, W. M. Getz. Effects of experimental exclusion of scavengers from anthrax-infected herbivore carcasses on Bacillus anthracis sporulation, survival and distribution. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2013; DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00181-13
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.
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Nokia's co-developed high-amplitude mics retain 10-month exclusivity, HTC has to look elsewhere (updated)
Nokia's injunction yesterday has now been made a little more concrete. The Amsterdam district court has handed down a 10-month ban on STMicroelectronics selling its high-amplitude mics to anyone other than the Finnish phone maker. The same dual-membrane microphone is used in both the Lumia 720 and the HTC One, but Nokia (which co-developed and designed the component) had signed a 12-month exclusivity deal with the chipmaker -- a deal that STMicroelectronics apparently thought was only six months long.
According to All About Phones NL, the ruling won't halt sales of One devices already out there, with the court stating that HTC was "blameless" and that it couldn't have known about the contract between Nokia and STMicroelectronics. In short, you'll still be able to buy HTC's flagship in the Netherlands with those dual high-amp mics in tow -- at least for now. We've reached out to both companies for comment, but it's shaping up to be another parts supply woe for HTC's new smartphone.
Update: We've just heard from HTC on this, and its response is largely the same as yesterday's:
"HTC is disappointed in the decision. We are consulting with STM and will decide whether it is necessary to explore alternative solutions in due course. In the meanwhile, we do not expect this decision to have any immediate impact on our handset sales."
Filed under: Cellphones, HTC, Nokia
Via: All About Phones NL
Source: Amsterdam District Court filing
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