loos anonymity: May 2013

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Cholesterol-lowering drug may reduce exercise benefits for obese adults

May 15, 2013 ? Statins, the most widely prescribed drugs worldwide, are often suggested to lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease in individuals with obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of medical disorders including excess body fat and/or high levels of blood pressure, blood sugar and/or cholesterol. However, University of Missouri researchers found that simvastatin, a generic type of statin previously sold under the brand name "Zocor," hindered the positive effects of exercise for obese and overweight adults.

"Fitness has proven to be the most significant predictor of longevity and health because it protects people from a variety of chronic diseases," said John Thyfault, an associate professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at MU. "Daily physical activity is needed to maintain or improve fitness, and thus improve health outcomes. However, if patients start exercising and taking statins at the same time, it seems that statins block the ability of exercise to improve their fitness levels."

Thyfault says many cardiologists want to prescribe statins to all patients over a certain age regardless of whether they have metabolic syndrome; the drugs also are recommended for people with Type 2 diabetes. He recommends that cardiologists more closely weigh the benefits and risks of statins given this new data about their effect on exercise training.

"Statins have only been used for about 15-20 years, so we don't know what the long-term effects of statins will be on aerobic fitness and overall health," Thyfault said. "If the drugs cause complications with improving or maintaining fitness, not everyone should be prescribed statins."

Thyfault and his colleagues measured cardiorespiratory fitness in 37 previously sedentary, obese individuals ages 25-59 with low fitness levels. The participants followed the same exercise regimen on the MU campus for 12 weeks; 18 of the 37 people also took 40 mg of simvastatin daily.

Statins significantly affected participants' exercise outcomes. Participants in the exercise-only group increased their cardiorespiratory fitness by an average of 10 percent compared to a 1.5 percent increase among participants also prescribed statins. Additionally, skeletal muscle mitochondrial content, the site where muscle cells turn oxygen into energy, decreased by 4.5 percent in the group taking statins while the exercise-only group had a 13 percent increase, a normal response following exercise training.

Thyfault suggests that future research determine whether lower doses of simvastatin or other types of statins similarly affect people's exercise outcomes and thus their risk for diseases such as Type 2 diabetes. Starting a statin regimen after exercising and obtaining a higher fitness level may reduce the drugs' effects on fitness, he says.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia. The original article was written by Kate McIntyre.

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

Journal Reference:

Catherine R. Mikus, Leryn J. Boyle, Sarah J. Borengasser, Douglas J. Oberlin, Scott P. Naples, Justin Fletcher, Grace M. Meers, Meghan Ruebel, M. Harold Laughlin, Kevin C. Dellsperger, Paul J. Fadel, John P. Thyfault. Simvastatin impairs exercise training adaptations. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2013.02.074

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/HGgePthEP6g/130515151945.htm

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Acer intros Aspire R7, a laptop with an adjustable display like an all-in-one (update: hands-on video)

Acer intros Aspire R7, a laptop with an adjustable display like an all-in-one (update: hands-on)

When Acer plans a global press event, asking journalists to fly in from twelve time zones away, you know it's going to announce more than just some back-to-school PCs. The company just announced the Aspire R7, a 15-inch laptop whose display sits on a flexible "Ezel" hinge, allowing it to be pushed up and back so that it lies nearly flat -- yep, just like an all-in-one desktop. Similar to the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga line, too, you can flip the screen all the way back so that it faces away from the keyboard, a feature that seems especially well-suited for giving presentations.

In terms of specs, Acer is being a little cagey, but we have learned the R7 has a 15.6-inch, 1080p display with a choice of Core i5 and i7 processors. The whole thing weighs in the neighborhood of five and a half pounds. Also confirmed: it's up for pre-order now for $999, available exclusively at Best Buy in the US. We're told it will ship May 17th. In the meantime, we've got hands-on photos below, and we'll very shortly be adding some first impressions after the break.

Filed under: Laptops, Acer

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/03/acer-aspire-r7/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Friday, May 3, 2013

umbrella policy - Frisco-Online Forums

Umbrella insurance refers to a liability insurance policy that protects the assets and future income of the name insured in addition to his or her primary policies.Typically, an umbrella policy is pure liability coverage over and above the coverage afforded by the regular policy, and is sold in increments of one million dollars. The term "umbrella" is used because it covers liability claims from all policies underneath it, such as auto insurance and homeowners insurance policies. For example, if the insured carries an auto insurance policy with liability limits of $500,000 and a homeowners insurance policy with a limit of $300,000, then with a million dollar umbrella, the insured's limits become in effect, $1,500,000 on an auto liability claim and $1,300,000 on a homeowners liability claim.

Umbrella insurance provides broad insurance beyond traditional home and auto. It provides additional liability coverage above the limits of homeowner's, auto, and boat insurance policies. It can also provide coverage for claims that may be excluded by the primary policies

Source: http://www.frisco-online.com/forums/showthread.php?t=820272

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Attorney: Suspect ?shocked and horrified? by bombing

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b69ce7b/l/0Lvideo0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C517380A50A/story01.htm

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Possibly the Best Music Discovery System Yet

In the digital age of ?nichification? it?s often easier to find lots of things you already like, while inadvertently walling yourself off from experiencing new things that you don?t know about yet. When it comes to music, recommendation systems like Pandora?s can help you discover music you may not have heard before, but that music is going to be related to the genre you?re already listening to.

NASA study projects warming-driven changes in global rainfall

Public release date: 3-May-2013
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Contact: Kathryn Hansen
kathryn.h.hansen@nasa.gov
301-286-1046
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

A NASA-led modeling study provides new evidence that global warming may increase the risk for extreme rainfall and drought.

The study shows for the first time how rising carbon dioxide concentrations could affect the entire range of rainfall types on Earth.

Analysis of computer simulations from 14 climate models indicates wet regions of the world, such as the equatorial Pacific Ocean and Asian monsoon regions, will see increases in heavy precipitation because of warming resulting from projected increases in carbon dioxide levels. Arid land areas outside the tropics and many regions with moderate rainfall could become drier.

The analysis provides a new assessment of global warming's impacts on precipitation patterns around the world. The study was accepted for publication in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters.

"In response to carbon dioxide-induced warming, the global water cycle undergoes a gigantic competition for moisture resulting in a global pattern of increased heavy rain, decreased moderate rain, and prolonged droughts in certain regions," said William Lau of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and lead author of the study.

The models project for every 1 degree Fahrenheit of carbon dioxide-induced warming, heavy rainfall will increase globally by 3.9 percent and light rain will increase globally by 1 percent. However, total global rainfall is not projected to change much because moderate rainfall will decrease globally by 1.4 percent.

Heavy rainfall is defined as months that receive an average of more than about 0.35 of an inch per day. Light rain is defined as months that receive an average of less than 0.01 of an inch per day. Moderate rainfall is defined as months that receive an average of between about 0.04 to 0.09 of an inch per day.

Areas projected to see the most significant increase in heavy rainfall are in the tropical zones around the equator, particularly in the Pacific Ocean and Asian monsoon regions.

Some regions outside the tropics may have no rainfall at all. The models also projected for every degree Fahrenheit of warming, the length of periods with no rain will increase globally by 2.6 percent. In the Northern Hemisphere, areas most likely to be affected include the deserts and arid regions of the southwest United States, Mexico, North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and northwestern China. In the Southern Hemisphere, drought becomes more likely in South Africa, northwestern Australia, coastal Central America and northeastern Brazil.

"Large changes in moderate rainfall, as well as prolonged no-rain events, can have the most impact on society because they occur in regions where most people live," Lau said. "Ironically, the regions of heavier rainfall, except for the Asian monsoon, may have the smallest societal impact because they usually occur over the ocean."

Lau and colleagues based their analysis on the outputs of 14 climate models in simulations of 140-year periods. The simulations began with carbon dioxide concentrations at about 280 parts per million -- similar to pre-industrial levels and well below the current level of almost 400 parts per million -- and then increased by 1 percent per year. The rate of increase is consistent with a "business as usual" trajectory of the greenhouse gas as described by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Analyzing the model results, Lau and his co-authors calculated statistics on the rainfall responses for a 27-year control period at the beginning of the simulation, and also for 27-year periods around the time of doubling and tripling of carbon dioxide concentrations. They conclude the model predictions of how much rain will fall at any one location as the climate warms are not very reliable.

"But if we look at the entire spectrum of rainfall types we see all the models agree in a very fundamental way -- projecting more heavy rain, less moderate rain events, and prolonged droughts," Lau said.

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

NASA study projects warming-driven changes in global rainfall Public release date: 3-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kathryn Hansen
kathryn.h.hansen@nasa.gov
301-286-1046
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

A NASA-led modeling study provides new evidence that global warming may increase the risk for extreme rainfall and drought.

The study shows for the first time how rising carbon dioxide concentrations could affect the entire range of rainfall types on Earth.

Analysis of computer simulations from 14 climate models indicates wet regions of the world, such as the equatorial Pacific Ocean and Asian monsoon regions, will see increases in heavy precipitation because of warming resulting from projected increases in carbon dioxide levels. Arid land areas outside the tropics and many regions with moderate rainfall could become drier.

The analysis provides a new assessment of global warming's impacts on precipitation patterns around the world. The study was accepted for publication in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters.

"In response to carbon dioxide-induced warming, the global water cycle undergoes a gigantic competition for moisture resulting in a global pattern of increased heavy rain, decreased moderate rain, and prolonged droughts in certain regions," said William Lau of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and lead author of the study.

The models project for every 1 degree Fahrenheit of carbon dioxide-induced warming, heavy rainfall will increase globally by 3.9 percent and light rain will increase globally by 1 percent. However, total global rainfall is not projected to change much because moderate rainfall will decrease globally by 1.4 percent.

Heavy rainfall is defined as months that receive an average of more than about 0.35 of an inch per day. Light rain is defined as months that receive an average of less than 0.01 of an inch per day. Moderate rainfall is defined as months that receive an average of between about 0.04 to 0.09 of an inch per day.

Areas projected to see the most significant increase in heavy rainfall are in the tropical zones around the equator, particularly in the Pacific Ocean and Asian monsoon regions.

Some regions outside the tropics may have no rainfall at all. The models also projected for every degree Fahrenheit of warming, the length of periods with no rain will increase globally by 2.6 percent. In the Northern Hemisphere, areas most likely to be affected include the deserts and arid regions of the southwest United States, Mexico, North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and northwestern China. In the Southern Hemisphere, drought becomes more likely in South Africa, northwestern Australia, coastal Central America and northeastern Brazil.

"Large changes in moderate rainfall, as well as prolonged no-rain events, can have the most impact on society because they occur in regions where most people live," Lau said. "Ironically, the regions of heavier rainfall, except for the Asian monsoon, may have the smallest societal impact because they usually occur over the ocean."

Lau and colleagues based their analysis on the outputs of 14 climate models in simulations of 140-year periods. The simulations began with carbon dioxide concentrations at about 280 parts per million -- similar to pre-industrial levels and well below the current level of almost 400 parts per million -- and then increased by 1 percent per year. The rate of increase is consistent with a "business as usual" trajectory of the greenhouse gas as described by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Analyzing the model results, Lau and his co-authors calculated statistics on the rainfall responses for a 27-year control period at the beginning of the simulation, and also for 27-year periods around the time of doubling and tripling of carbon dioxide concentrations. They conclude the model predictions of how much rain will fall at any one location as the climate warms are not very reliable.

"But if we look at the entire spectrum of rainfall types we see all the models agree in a very fundamental way -- projecting more heavy rain, less moderate rain events, and prolonged droughts," Lau said.

###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/nsfc-nsp050313.php
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Antoine Dodson Quits Being Gay?You Can Run & Tell Dat! (VIDEOS)

Antoine Dodson Quits Being Gay…You Can Run & Tell Dat! (VIDEOS)

Antoine Dodson not gay anymore Antoine Dodson, you know…the flamboyant guy that asked you to “Hide yo wives…hide yo kids… from a bed intruder, has now made the big announcement on Facebook that he is now longer gay. Antoine is renouncing his homosexuality and is ready for a wife and kids. Just wow! The internet personality took to Facebook to ...

Antoine Dodson Quits Being Gay…You Can Run & Tell Dat! (VIDEOS) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/05/antoine-dodson-quits-being-gay-you-can-run-tell-dat-videos/

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Witherspoon pleads no contest, fined after arrest

This image released by ABC news shows co-host George Stephanopoulos, left, interviewing actress Reese Witherspoon on "Good Morning America," Thursday, May 2, 2013 in New York. During the interview, Witherspoon repeatedly apologized for her behavior during an April 19 traffic stop in Georgia. Witherspoon, 37, was arrested after the trooper said she wouldn't stay in the car while her husband, Hollywood agent Jim Toth, was given a field sobriety test. Toth was charged with drunken driving and is due in court May 23. Witherspoon faces a May 22 court hearing on the disorderly conduct charge. (AP Photo/ABC, Ida Mae Astute)

FILE - In this April 21, 2013 file photo, Actress Reese Witherspoon attends the premiere of "Mud" hosted by The Cinema Society?with FIJI Water & Levi's at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Witherspoon recalls that she panicked and said "crazy things" the night she was arrested in Atlanta on a disorderly conduct charge. During an interview on Good Morning America, Thursday, May 2, 2013, Witherspoon repeatedly apologized for her behavior during the April 19 traffic stop. (Photo by Evan Agostini/InvisionAP)

ATLANTA (AP) ? Reese Witherspoon pleaded no contest and paid a $100 fine after berating a state trooper in Atlanta while her husband was given a sobriety test, an embarrassing exchange caught on a dashboard camera after the usually squeaky-clean Hollywood star had what she called "one too many" glasses of wine.

The video, which was first obtained by TMZ and publicly released by authorities Friday, shows Witherspoon asking the trooper, "Do you know my name?" and then adding, "You're about to find out who I am."

Witherspoon's exchange with the officer had already been outlined in a police report, but the video offered a rare glimpse at the actress unfiltered. Witherspoon, who has built a wholesome professional image, apologized shortly after her arrest, saying she was "deeply embarrassed."

Municipal Court of Atlanta Deputy Solicitor Ronda Graham said in a statement that Witherspoon entered the plea and paid the fine, resolving the case.

During an interview with "Good Morning America" on Thursday, Witherspoon said she panicked and said "all kinds of crazy things," including falsely claiming that she was pregnant at one point. She said during the interview that she had too much to drink before her arrest.

In the video, the 37-year-old argues with the trooper while he attempts to question her husband, Hollywood agent Jim Toth, on an Atlanta street during the pre-dawn hours of April 19.

Toth pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving, Graham said. He was fined $600 and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service and participate in a program for DUI offenders.

That is a "standard sentence for a first-time offender," Graham said.

In the video, Trooper First Class J. Pyland tells Witherspoon to stay in the couple's vehicle no fewer than five times. For her part, Witherspoon is equally determined to get out and engage him, even at one point feigning to be pregnant and saying she needed to use the bathroom.

When the trooper starts to arrest her, she lets loose. The 5-foot-1 Witherspoon turns to yell at him while being handcuffed and accuses the trooper of harassment, at one point prompting him to warn her, "You fight me, I promise you ..."

Witherspoon's husband mostly observes the exchange, but tries to calm her after the trooper's warning about resisting arrest.

The dash-com video shows the situation quickly escalating. In one video clip, the trooper appears to be examining Toth when Witherspoon, out of view, starts to get out of her vehicle.

"Ma'am, get back in that car," the trooper tells her.

She apologizes, and asks if she can say something. "No ma'am," he says, "get back in that car. I'm not going to repeat myself again."

Later, when Witherspoon continues to try to intervene, the trooper handcuffs her.

"You better not arrest me! Are you kidding me?" she asks.

"Nope," he responds.

She protests again, "I'm an American citizen!" The trooper leans toward her and says he told her to stay in the car.

She repeats "This is beyond!" She turns to yell at the trooper as he's handcuffing her and he raises his chin and warns her against resisting arrest.

As Witherspoon is taken out of view, she can be heard asking, "Do you know my name sir?" When he says he doesn't need to, she asks, "You don't need to know my name?" He says "Not quite yet," and she adds, "Oh really. OK, you're about to find out who I am."

The trooper responds, "That's fine. I'm not real worried about you, ma'am. I done told you how things worked. You want to get out and get up in my investigation, that's OK."

No one from the Georgia State Patrol leaked the video before its official release on Friday, agency spokesman Gordy Wright said. The only copy that had been made earlier was for the prosecutor, Wright said.

The star of hit movies such as "Walk The Line," ''Legally Blonde," ''Sweet Home Alabama" and "Election" said during her interview that "there are so many lessons learned."

"When a police officer tells you to stay in the car, you stay in the car," she said. "I learned that for sure. I learned a lot."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-05-03-Reese%20Witherspoon%20Arrest/id-2e1a31dbc4a947f88a6686c1208387de

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Individual brain cells track where we are and how we move

May 2, 2013 ? Leaving the house in the morning may seem simple, but with every move we make, our brains are working feverishly to create maps of the outside world that allow us to navigate and to remember where we are.

Take one step out the front door, and an individual brain cell fires. Pass by your rose bush on the way to the car, another specific neuron fires. And so it goes. Ultimately, the brain constructs its own pinpoint geographical chart that is far more precise than anything you'd find on Google Maps.

But just how neurons make these maps of space has fascinated scientists for decades. It is known that several types of stimuli influence the creation of neuronal maps, including visual cues in the physical environment -- that rose bush, for instance -- the body's innate knowledge of how fast it is moving, and other inputs, like smell. Yet the mechanisms by which groups of neurons combine these various stimuli to make precise maps are unknown.

To solve this puzzle, UCLA neurophysicists built a virtual-reality environment that allowed them to manipulate these cues while measuring the activity of map-making neurons in rats. Surprisingly, they found that when certain cues were removed, the neurons that typically fire each time a rat passes a fixed point or landmark in the real world instead began to compute the rat's relative position, firing, for example, each time the rodent walked five paces forward, then five paces back, regardless of landmarks. And many other mapping cells shut down altogether, suggesting that different sensory cues strongly influence these neurons.

Finally, the researchers found that in this virtual world, the rhythmic firing of neurons that normally speeds up or slows down depending on the rate at which an animal moves, was profoundly altered. The rats' brains maintained a single, steady rhythmic pattern.

The findings, reported in the May 2 online edition of the journal Science, provide further clues to how the brain learns and makes memories.

The mystery of how cells determine place

"Place cells" are individual neurons located in the brain's hippocampus that create maps by registering specific places in the outside environment. These cells are crucial for learning and memory. They are also known to play a role in such conditions as post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer's disease when damaged.

For some 40 years, the thinking had been that the maps made by place cells were based primarily on visual landmarks in the environment, known as distal cues -- a tall tree, a building -- as well on motion, or gait, cues. But, as UCLA neurophysicist and senior study author Mayank Mehta points out, other cues are present in the real world: the smell of the local pizzeria, the sound of a nearby subway tunnel, the tactile feel of one's feet on a surface. These other cues, which Mehta likes to refer to as "stuff," were believed to have only a small influence on place cells.

Could it be that these different sensory modalities led place cells to create individual maps, wondered Mehta, a professor with joint appointments in the departments of neurology, physics and astronomy. And if so, do these individual maps cooperate with each other, or do they compete? No one really knew for sure.

Virtual reality reveals new clues

To investigate, Mehta and his colleagues needed to separate the distal and gait cues from all the other "stuff." They did this by crafting a virtual-reality maze for rats in which odors, sounds and all stimuli, except distal and gait cues, were removed. As video of a physical environment was projected around them, the rats, held by a harness, were placed on a ball that rotated as they moved. When they ran, the video would move along with them, giving the animals the illusion that they were navigating their way through an actual physical environment.

As a comparison, the researchers had the rats -- six altogether -- run a real-world maze that was visually identical to the virtual-reality version but that included the additional "stuff" cues. Using micro-electrodes 10 times thinner than a human hair, the team measured the activity of some 3,000 space-mapping neurons in the rats' brains as they completed both mazes.

What they found intrigued them. The elimination of the "stuff" cues in the virtual-reality maze had a huge effect: Fully half of the neurons being recorded became inactive, despite the fact that the distal and gate cues were similar in the virtual and real worlds. The results, Mehta said, show that these other sensory cues, once thought to play only a minor role in activating the brain, actually have a major influence on place cells.

And while in the real world, place cells responded to fixed, absolute positions, spiking at those same positions each time rats passed them, regardless of the direction they were moving -- a finding consistent with previous experiments -- this was not the case in the virtual-reality maze.

"In the virtual world," Mehta said, "we found that the neurons almost never did that. Instead, the neurons spiked at the same relative distance in the two directions as the rat moved back and forth. In other words, going back to the front door-to-car analogy, in a virtual world, the cell that fires five steps away from the door when leaving your home would not fire five steps away from the door upon your return. Instead, it would fire five steps away from the car when leaving the car. Thus, these cells are keeping track of the relative distance traveled rather than absolute position. This gives us evidence for the individual place cell's ability to represent relative distances."

Mehta thinks this is because neuronal maps are generated by three different categories of stimuli -- distal cues, gait and "stuff" -- and that all are competing for control of neural activity. This competition is what ultimately generates the "full" map of space.

"All the external stuff is fixed at the same absolute position and hence generates a representation of absolute space," he said. "But when all the stuff is removed, the profound contribution of gait is revealed, which enables neurons to compute relative distances traveled."

The researchers also made a new discovery about the brain's theta rhythm. It is known that place cells use the rhythmic firing of neurons to keep track of "brain time," the brain's internal clock. Normally, Mehta said, the theta rhythm becomes faster as subjects run faster, and slower as running speed decreases. This speed-dependent change in brain rhythm was thought to be crucial for generating the 'brain time' for place cells. But the team found that in the virtual world, the theta rhythm was uninfluenced by running speed.

"That was a surprising and fascinating discovery, because the 'brain time' of place cells was as precise in the virtual world as in the real world, even though the speed-dependence of the theta rhythm was abolished," Mehta said. "This gives us a new insight about how the brain keeps track of space-time."

The researchers found that the firing of place cells was very precise, down to one-hundredth of a second, "so fast that we humans cannot perceive it but neurons can," Mehta said. "We have found that this very precise spiking of neurons with respect to 'brain-time' is crucial for learning and making new memories."

Mehta said the results, taken together, provide insight into how distinct sensory cues both cooperate and compete to influence the intricate network of neuronal activity. Understanding how these cells function is key to understanding how the brain makes and retains memories, which are vulnerable to such disorders as Alzheimer's and PTSD.

"Ultimately, understanding how these intricate neuronal networks function is a key to developing therapies to prevent such disorders," he said.

Other authors of the study included Pascal Ravassard, Ashley Kees and Bernard Willers, all lead authors, and David Ho, Daniel A. Aharoni, Jesse Cushman and Zahra M. Aghajan of UCLA. Funding was provided by the W.M. Keck foundation, a National Science Foundation career award grant and a National Institutes of Health grant (5R01MH092925-02).

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Mark Wheeler.

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

Journal Reference:

P. Ravassard, A. Kees, B. Willers, D. Ho, D. A. Aharoni, J. Cushman, Z. M. Aghajan, M. R. Mehta. Multisensory Control of Hippocampal Spatiotemporal Selectivity. Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1126/science.1232655

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

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/top_news/top_science/~3/Q3BZmjM55TI/130503094954.htm

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Woman who killed cop in '73 named most wanted terrorist

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) ? The reward for the capture and return of a fugitive member of a black militant group convicted of murdering a New Jersey state trooper was doubled to $2 million Thursday on the 40th anniversary of the bloody gun battle.

The FBI also announced it has made Joanne Chesimard, now living in Cuba as Assata Shakur, the first woman on its list of most wanted terrorists.

"She continues to flaunt her freedom in the face of this horrific crime," State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said at a news conference Thursday. Fuentes called the case "an open wound" for troopers in New Jersey and around the country.

The Justice Dept. has maintained a $1 million reward for information leading to her capture. The additional money is being put up by the state of New Jersey through civil and criminal forfeiture funds and won't fall on taxpayers, state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said Thursday.

Chesimard, a member of the violent Black Liberation Army, was convicted of the 1973 murder of state trooper Werner Foerster during a traffic stop. The BLA was responsible for killing more than a dozen police officers in the 1970s and 80s, said Aaron Ford, special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark division.

According to Fuentes, Foerster and his partner stopped a car carrying Chesimard and two cohorts on the New Jersey Turnpike for a broken tail light. When the troopers approached the car, a gunfight ensued and both troopers were injured. Chesimard then allegedly took Foerster's gun and shot him twice in the head as he lay on the ground.

She was convicted in 1977 but escaped from prison in New Jersey in November 1979 with the help of accomplices. She spent the next few years living in safe houses, two of which were in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, before surfacing in Cuba in 1984, Fuentes said.

In Cuba, Chesimard has continued to espouse her anti-U.S. views in speeches advocating "revolution and terrorism" and may have connections to other international terrorist organizations, Ford said.

"She is a domestic terrorist who murdered a law enforcement officer execution style," he said. "And while we can't right the wrongs of the past, we can and will continue to pursue justice no matter how long it takes."

Chesimard is believed to be one of dozens of American fugitives living in Cuba, many of them one-time members of U.S. militant groups. Cuba doesn't haven an extradition agreement with the U.S. due to the chilly relations between the two countries over the last five decades, but the climate appears to be slowly changing.

In recent years, Cuba has deported some fugitives back to the U.S., including one man convicted of mail fraud and another sought on child pornography charges. This month, the country returned a Florida couple accused in a custody dispute of kidnapping their two children and sailing to Cuba.

Authorities said Thursday they hope the increased attention and reward will convince someone to come forward.

"Our resolve to capture Joanne Chesimard does not diminish with the passage of time," Chiesa said. "Instead, it grows stronger with the knowledge that this killer continues to be free. Our hope is the augmented reward will spur action that will bring Joanne Chesimard back to face the justice she has evaded for far too long."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nj-troopers-killer-named-most-wanted-terrorist-150014544.html

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

HTC looks to boost One sales with new weekend promo, offers $100 to $375 for trade-ins

HTC has already gone the trade-in route to offer folks a discount on its new One smartphone, but it's now giving it another go this weekend with an expanded promo in the US and Canada. This new one is open to anyone that buys an HTC One between today and Sunday, May 5th (the previous promotion required folks to pre-register), and it now offers up to $375 for smartphones that you trade in. Unless you're looking to unload your brand new smartphone in a hurry, though, you may want to check around for the going rates first. The slightly better option is for folks who've been sticking with an aging phone; as before, HTC is guaranteeing at least $100 for your trade-in, so you may well get more from it than you would on the open market (assuming you want to buy a One, of course). Those interested can find all the fine print and check the value of their phone at the source link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

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Source: HTC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/02/htc-one-weekend-trade-promo/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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ECB set for rate cut as inflation falls sharply

By Eva Kuehnen

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is expected to cut its main interest rate for the first time in 10 months on Thursday, driven to act by an economy wallowing in recession and freed to do so by sharply falling inflation

Economic data over the past weeks since ECB President Mario Draghi said the bank stood ready to act if necessary has shown growth prospects darkening.

Unemployment hit a record high in April. Inflation had its biggest monthly drop more than four years, to 1.2 percent, well below the banks target of 2 percent or slightly below.

"If the ECB does hold fire on interest rates next Thursday, it is very likely only delaying the inevitable," said Howard Archer, European economist at IHS Global Insight.

ECB Vice-President Vitor Constancio last week said there was still room to cut interest rates, reiterating the bank's readiness to act should the economy deteriorate further, which he said had been unfortunately the case.

A Reuters poll of 76 economists taken last week - before the inflation data - saw a slim majority forecasting a 25-basis point cut from the current 0.75 percent, while only half of the 22 euro money market dealers polled by Reuters expect such a step.

But the economic impact is questionable and not everybody is in favor of another cut. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week the ECB would have to raise interest rates if it were looking at Germany alone.

German insurers and the county's dominant savings and cooperative banking sector have also joined up to speak out against looser ECB monetary policy, saying it would have little economic impact and undermined savings needed to protect the country's rapidly ageing population.

The euro zone periphery countries take the opposite view.

"Mr Draghi has been very good with words since the summer, but now it is really time to deliver accommodative policy in the periphery of the euro area," said Anna Maria Grimaldi, European economist at Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo. She sees a potential for the ECB to cut rates by 50 basis points on Thursday.

SMALL COMPANIES, BIG PROBLEM

The euro zone's south is not benefiting to the same extent as the north from ultra-low rates. Banks there are charging companies and households more for loans than their peers in the north because of higher funding costs and credit risks.

The ECB has repeatedly voiced its concern about the impact this has on lending to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have little alternative to bank funding and are a key engine for growth in the currency bloc.

It has said it is studying options to address the problem, but little is expected to be decided at Thursday's policy meeting that is taking place in Bratislava. It is one out of two policy meetings the ECB holds outside of Frankfurt each year.

"We suspect that the ECB will avoid making any formal statement on a potential SME program ... as it continues to weigh the pros and cons of such measures," said Frederik Ducrozet, senior euro zone economist at Cr?dit Agricole CIB.

(Reporting by Eva Kuehnen, additional reporting Jonathan Gould. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ecb-set-rate-cut-inflation-falls-sharply-000811779.html

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Home Improvement Tips To Increase The Value Of Your Home ...

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Source: http://dehamerspace.com/2013/05/01/home-improvement-tips-to-increase-the-value-of-your-home/

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How petals get their shape

Apr. 30, 2013 ? Why do rose petals have rounded ends while their leaves are more pointed? In a new study published April 30 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, scientists from the John Innes Centre and University of East Anglia, UK, reveal that the shape of petals is controlled by a hidden map located within the plant's growing buds.

Leaves and petals perform different functions related to their shape. Leaves acquire sugars for a plant via photosynthesis, which can then be transported throughout the plant. Petals develop later in the life cycle and help attract pollinators. In earlier work, this team had discovered that leaves in the plant Arabidopsis contain a hidden map that orients growth in a pattern that converges towards the tip of the bud, giving leaves their characteristic pointed tips. In the new study, the researchers discover that Arabidopsis petals contain a similar, hidden map that orients growth in the flower's bud. However, the pattern of growth is different to that in leaves -- in the petal growth is oriented towards the edge giving a more rounded shape -- accounting for the different shapes of leaves and petals. The researchers discovered that molecules called PIN proteins are involved in this oriented growth, which are located towards the ends of each cell.

"The discovery of these hidden polarity maps was a real surprise and provides a simple explanation for how different shapes can be generated," said Professor Enrico Coen, senior author of the study.

The team of researchers confirmed their ideas by using computer simulations to test which maps could predict the correct petal shape. They then confirmed experimentally that PIN proteins located to the right sites to be involved in oriented growth, and identified that another protein, called JAGGED, is involved in promoting growth towards the edge of petals and in establishing the hidden map that determines petal growth and shape.

Unlike animal cells, plant cells are unable to move and migrate to form structures of a particular shape, and so these findings help to explain how plants create differently shaped organs -- by controlling rates and orientations of cell growth. From an evolutionary perspective, this system creates the flexibility needed for plant organs to adapt to their environment and to develop different functions.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

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Journal Reference:

Sauret-G?eto S, Schiessl K, Bangham A, Sablowski R, Coen E (2013) . JAGGED Controls: Arabidopsis Petal Growth and Shape by Interacting with a Divergent Polarity Field. PLoS Biol, 2013 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001550

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/p8xi4D-n5X0/130430194301.htm

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How we decode 'noisy' language in daily life

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Suppose you hear someone say, "The man gave the ice cream the child." Does that sentence seem plausible? Or do you assume it is missing a word? Such as: "The man gave the ice cream to the child."

A new study by MIT researchers indicates that when we process language, we often make these kinds of mental edits. Moreover, it suggests that we seem to use specific strategies for making sense of confusing information ? the "noise" interfering with the signal conveyed in language, as researchers think of it.

"Even at the sentence level of language, there is a potential loss of information over a noisy channel," says Edward Gibson, a professor in MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) and Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.

Gibson and two co-authors detail the strategies at work in a new paper, "Rational integration of noisy evidence and prior semantic expectations in sentence interpretation," published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"As people are perceiving language in everyday life, they're proofreading, or proof-hearing, what they're getting," says Leon Bergen, a PhD student in BCS and a co-author of the study. "What we're getting is quantitative evidence about how exactly people are doing this proofreading. It's a well-calibrated process."

Asymmetrical strategies

The paper is based on a series of experiments the researchers conducted, using the Amazon Mechanical Turk survey system, in which subjects were presented with a series of sentences ? some evidently sensible, and others less so ? and asked to judge what those sentences meant.

A key finding is that given a sentence with only one apparent problem, people are more likely to think something is amiss than when presented with a sentence where two edits may be needed. In the latter case, people seem to assume instead that the sentence is not more thoroughly flawed, but has an alternate meaning entirely.

"The more deletions and the more insertions you make, the less likely it will be you infer that they meant something else," Gibson says. When readers have to make one such change to a sentence, as in the ice cream example above, they think the original version was correct about 50 percent of the time. But when people have to make two changes, they think the sentence is correct even more often, about 97 percent of the time.

Thus the sentence, "Onto the cat jumped a table," which might seem to make no sense, can be made plausible with two changes ? one deletion and one insertion ? so that it reads, "The cat jumped onto a table." And yet, almost all the time, people will not infer that those changes are needed, and assume the literal, surreal meaning is the one intended.

This finding interacts with another one from the study, that there is a systematic asymmetry between insertions and deletions on the part of listeners.

"People are much more likely to infer an alternative meaning based on a possible deletion than on a possible insertion," Gibson says.

Suppose you hear or read a sentence that says, "The businessman benefitted the tax law." Most people, it seems, will assume that sentence has a word missing from it ? "from," in this case ? and fix the sentence so that it now reads, "The businessman benefitted from the tax law." But people will less often think sentences containing an extra word, such as "The tax law benefitted from the businessman," are incorrect, implausible as they may seem.

Another strategy people use, the researchers found, is that when presented with an increasing proportion of seemingly nonsensical sentences, they actually infer lower amounts of "noise" in the language. That means people adapt when processing language: If every sentence in a longer sequence seems silly, people are reluctant to think all the statements must be wrong, and hunt for a meaning in those sentences. By contrast, they perceive greater amounts of noise when only the occasional sentence seems obviously wrong, because the mistakes so clearly stand out.

"People seem to be taking into account statistical information about the input that they're receiving to figure out what kinds of mistakes are most likely in different environments," Bergen says.

###

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice

Thanks to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128015/How_we_decode__noisy__language_in_daily_life

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