This short adorable video show how amazing the work at the Harnas wildlife foundation is. Goeter is the longest living know cheetah (23) who lived out his amazing life on the Harnas Wildlife Foundation. Receiving all the love, attention, and care he deserved. I hope you enjoy this small video clip of Goeter purring.
Source: http://www.indiegogo.com/stefanimarkis?c=activity
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North Korea warned the world not to expect change from the regime under new leader Kim Jong Un and threatened a ?roar of revenge? against South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, ahead of New Year messages by both sides that analysts say will focus on inter-Korean relations.
Lee had provoked North Korea by raising security alerts and declining to send an official mission to pay condolences after the Dec. 17 death of Kim Jong Il, the National Defense Commission said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency yesterday. The release came a day after the North ended a mourning period for Kim?s death.
?The veritable sea of tears shed by the army and people of the DPRK will turn into that of retaliatory fire to burn all the group of traitors to the last one,? the statement said, echoing rhetoric during Kim Jong Il?s rule. ?The DPRK will have no dealings with the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors forever.?
Both Kim Jong Un and Lee face leadership tests that could shape their attitude toward engagement. Kim Jong Un needs to cement his grip on power in a country where the United Nations says one-third of the children are physically stunted from a lack of nutrition. Lee and his ruling party, which rolled back the ?Sunshine Policy? of engagement with the nuclear-armed North, have dropped in opinion polls ahead of elections next year.
The statement from the National Defense Commission, which Kim Jong Il led, may be more evidence that Kim Jong Un has solidified his control over the regime, said Cheong Seong, a senior fellow at Seoul?s Sejong Institute, a research group that focuses in Korean relations. North Korea will achieve victory ?closely rallied behind the dear respected Kim Jong Un,? the last sentence of the statement says.
?The new regime is trying to say that Kim Jong Un even has control over what was his father?s main state organ,? Cheong said in a telephone interview.
North Korea will release its New Year statement tomorrow in the form of an editorial carried by local newspapers and the state-run Korean Central News Agency. In his annual address on Jan. 2, Lee will focus on inter-Korean relations, inflation and unemployment, according to a spokesman at Lee?s office who declined to be named, citing government policy.
As part of the effort to bolster the image of the new leader, the North?s New Year message will include measures the regime will take to fulfill Kim Jong Il?s promise of creating a ?strong and prosperous nation,? said Yang Moo Jin, a professor of North Korean politics at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
?Kim Jong Un is de facto leader, but he still needs to prove himself in launching his new regime ? and an economic measure would be the most efficient way of doing that,? Yang said. ?What?s more hard-hitting for North Koreans than policies that affect how they?ll be able to put food on the table??
North Korea?s 2010 gross domestic product was 30 trillion won ($26.5 billion), one-40th the size of South Korea?s, according to estimates by the South?s central bank. The North?s economy probably shrank in four of the past five years, the Bank of Korea says. Pyongyang doesn?t release GDP data.
South Korea?s gross domestic product nearly doubled to 1,173 trillion won ($1 trillion) from 2001 to 2010. The Bank of Korea forecasts that the country?s economic growth will slow to 3.7 percent next year from 3.8 percent this year.
Lee will take advantage of the transition in the North and announce a more conciliatory stance, said Kim Young Yoon of the Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Reunification. The opposition has blamed Lee for escalating tensions, saying his tough stance provoked hostilities that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.
Lee scaled back the Sunshine Policy implemented by his predecessor, Kim Dae Jung, when he entered office in 2008, saying that Kim Jong Il?s provocative policies should not be rewarded.
Lee?s approval rating is at 26.9 percent, according to a poll of 3,750 South Koreans conducted Dec. 19-23 by Seoul-based Real Meter. The margin of error was plus or minus 1.6 percentage points.
?The current mood in South Korea is to take advantage of the North?s regime change and improve inter-Korean relations,? Kim said. ?The easiest way to do that would be to call for high-level meetings to make way for resumed six-party talks,? he said, referring to a dialogue that is aimed at persuading the North to relinquish its nuclear-weapons program and includes the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
South Korea announced a ?low-level? alert after Kim Jong Il?s death was announced and expressed ?sympathy? with the North Korean people, while limiting the number of its citizens who could travel to Pyongyang on condolence visits. Lee said the measures were meant to signal that his country wasn?t hostile toward the North, while Pyongyang issued threats of ?unpredictable catastrophic consequences? over the South?s restrictions on visits.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula erupted into open conflict in March 2010, when 46 South Korean sailors were killed in the sinking of the Cheonan warship. An international panel blamed the attack on the North, which has denied the allegations. Eight months later, the North shelled an island in the Yellow Sea, killing four South Koreans.
North Korea, which has twice detonated a nuclear device, has more than 250 long-range artillery installations along the world?s most fortified border in reach of the Seoul area and its 23 million citizens. North and South Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-1953 conflict ended in a cease-fire.
South Korea plans to set up a fund to raise as much as 55 trillion won to pay for the costs of eventual reunification with the North, South Korean Unification Minister Yu Woo Ik said in an October interview. Yu said the cost may be as high as 269 trillion won, or almost a quarter of South Korea?s 2010 gross domestic product.
While the North?s statement yesterday was its most belligerent since Kim Jong Il?s death, an attack is unlikely and it is focused mainly on food aid, said Kim Yong Hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.
?They want resumption of six-party talks more than anything because that?s the only way to get aid that is so crucial,? he said.
? Copyright 2011 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ALLTOP-ASBNX-ASIA-ASIACURZ5/2011/12/30/id/422588
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ScienceDaily (Dec. 29, 2011) ? A study led by the CSIC's Institute of Marine Sciences, in collaboration with researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), has found the epigenetic mechanism that links temperature and gonadal sex in fish. High temperature increases DNA methylation of the gonadal aromatase promoter in female.
The environmental temperature has effects on sex determination. There are species, such as the Atlantic silverside fish, whose sex determination depends mainly on temperature. And there are other species whose sex determination is written within its DNA but still temperature can override this genetic 'instruction'.
Previous studies with the European sea bass, a fish whose sex determination depends on a combination of genetic and environmental factors, had shown that starting with a normal sex ratio population -equal proportions of male and females, it was possible to obtain an all-male group just through an increase in water temperature during a critical period of early development.
The most intriguing observation was that effects of temperature were maximum at a moment when gonads were not differentiated nor had they even started to form. Why was this happening, what makes temperature override the genetic component and so early was, until now, a long-standing puzzle.
Now, a research lead by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has found out the answer. The team, lead by Francesc Piferrer, a CSIC professor at the Institute of Marine Sciences, in Barcelona, describes the mechanism which is induced by increased temperatures and triggers aromatase gene silencing.
Aromatase is an enzyme that transforms androgens into estrogens, which are essential for the development of ovaries in all non-mammalian vertebrates. If there is no aromatase there are no estrogens, and without estrogens the development of ovaries is not possible. The research, that has been realized with the contribution of the Center for Genomic Regulation, in Barcelona, is being published this week in PLos Genetics.
Early effects
In the experiment, scientists exposed two groups of European seabass larvae at different temperatures, normal and high temperature, during their first weeks of life.
Results show that high temperature increases the DNA methylation of the gonadal aromatase promoter (cyp19a), which, in turn drives its silencing as its transcriptional activation is inhibited. In the group exposed to high temperature there were genetic females that were only partially affected and yet developed as females. However, there were other genetic females with the highest level of DNA methylation that therefore developed as males because aromatase was fully inhibited.
This is the first time that an epigenetic mechanism linking an environmental factor to a cellular mechanism related to the sexual determination has been described in any animal. Previously, only a similar mechanism had been described in some plants.
As researcher Francesc Piferrer points out, 'animals are affected very soon, before differences between females and males become visible in histological samples, which happens on the 150th day of life, and even before the gonads start to form, which happens on the 35th day of life'.
This work explains why a few degrees of temperature rise masculinize these animals, something relevant in a context of global change.
It also explains why many fishes raised on farms are males, since farmers raise larvae in warmer waters in order to accelerate their growth. Piferrer adds that 'sex determination by temperature is very common in reptiles. It will be interesting to see if a similar mechanism to the one described exists in this group of vertebrates'.
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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111229203027.htm
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A high-tech charity based in the United Kingdom is prepping two models of a credit-card-sized PC that will be available for purchase early next year for $25 and $35, respectively.
Among other things, the cheap price and lower power requirements of the new devices from the Raspberry Pi organization promise to make it less worrisome for parents everywhere to permit their children to tinker with the innards of a fully capable computing machine.
One major organization goal is to provide developing countries with an affordable means of deploying inexpensive computing devices in areas where the cost, power and hardware requirements of traditional desktop machines are prohibitive obstacles.
"We want to see cheap, accessible, programmable computers everywhere," the Raspberry Pi development team said.
What's more, the new Raspberry Pi machines will provide children as well as adult hobbyists with a platform for compiling and running home-grown software apps without risking the family's significantly more expensive machines.
At the outset, the tiny machine will run the ArchLinux, Debian and Fedora distributions of ARM GNU/Linux, which users will be able to purchase on preloaded SD cards sold separately.
"We want owning a truly personal computer to be normal for children," the Raspberry Pi development team said. "We think that 2012 is going to be a very exciting year."
A Multimedia Powerhouse
Don't be fooled by the device's tiny footprint and low cost. Raspberry Pi is fully capable of rendering Blu-ray-quality, 1080p video playback. What's more, the machine integrates the requisite hardware-accelerated graphics capabilities for supporting imaging, a camcorder, streaming media and 3D gaming.
At the heart of the diminutive device is Broadcom's BCM2835 system on a chip, which features a standard ARM v6 core running at 700MHz. Also aboard is Broadcom's dual-core Videocore IV multimedia co-processor and Videocore graphics processor unit. Additionally, the tiny PC board integrates a RAM chip as well as an SD card slot.
With respect to connecting to peripherals, Raspberry Pi sports composite video and HDMI outputs that will enable experimenters to use either a digital or analog television as a display. Moreover, a USB port supplies the connection for a hub to which users can attach a USB keyboard, mouse and other peripherals.
Though a Wi-Fi radio is not aboard the device itself, users will be able to add wireless capabilities by plugging in a USB dongle. Additionally, the $35 model includes a standard 10/100 wired Ethernet port.
The Raspberry Pi will initially ship without a case, though the U.K. charity expects to offer one later on. The 5-volt power supply, which connects to the board via the USB port, will be sold separately.
An Opportunity For Hobbyists
The Raspberry Pi is also expected to provide adult hobbyists with a basic platform for experimentation even as ARM chip architectures make forays over time through the sheer weight of the diversity of the chip ecosystems being designed today, noted Al Hilwa, director of applications software at IDC.
"As systems trend towards further miniaturization, they will inevitably grow lower in cost," Hilwa said. "It is not inconceivable to have PC functionality shift to phone CPUs as these chips ramp up in cores and gigahertz, but this scenario is at least five years away from mainstreaming."
In the meantime, Hilwa believes there will likely be a renaissance for Linux systems such as the ArchLinux, Debian and Fedora distributions of ARM GNU/Linux that will be supplied for the Raspberry Pi at the outset.
This will especially be the case "for hobbyists who will be increasingly cut out of mainstream platforms because of their tight control through app stores and restricted programming models," Hilwa said.
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111228/bs_nf/81565
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The 2007 Cosco Busan disaster, which spilled 54,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay, had an unexpectedly lethal impact on embryonic fish, devastating a commercially and ecologically important species for nearly two years, reports a new study by the University of California, Davis, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The study, to be published the week of Dec. 26 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that even small oil spills can have a large impact on marine life, and that common chemical analyses of oil spills may be inadequate.
"Our research represents a change in the paradigm for oil spill research and detecting oil spill effects in an urbanized estuary," said Gary Cherr, director of the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory and a study co-author.
On the foggy morning of Nov. 7, 2007, when the container ship collided with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, bunker oil contaminated spawning habitats for the largest U.S. coastal population of Pacific herring?a month before spawning season.
The new study, which analyzed Pacific herring embryos following the spill, highlights the effects of bunker oil on fish embryos in shallow water, the potential significance of sunlight interacting with oil compounds, and the extreme vulnerability of fish in early life stages to spilled oil.
Specifically, the study found that components of Cosco Busan bunker oil accumulated in naturally spawned herring embryos, then interacted with sunlight during low tides to kill the embryos. Laboratory fertilized eggs, caged in deeper waters, were protected from the lethal combination of sunlight and oil, but still showed less severe abnormalities associated with oil exposure.
Crude oil is naturally occurring, liquid petroleum. Bunker oil is a thick fuel oil distilled from crude oil and burned on ships to fuel their engines. It is contaminated with various, sometimes unknown, substances.
The study builds on research following the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, which released up to 32 million gallons of crude oil into the comparatively pristine environment of Prince William Sound, Alaska. That research established a new paradigm for understanding the effects of oil toxicity on fish at early life stages.
The new study suggests that this old paradigm is inadequate to explain the dramatic, lethal effects of very low levels of oil on fish embryos, even in an urban estuary with preexisting background pollution.
"Based on our previous understanding of the effects of oil on embryonic fish, we didn't think there was enough oil from the Cosco Busan spill to cause this much damage," Cherr said. "And we didn't expect that the ultraviolet light would dramatically increase toxicity in the actual environment, as we might observe in controlled laboratory experiments."
Researchers began the new study in February 2008. They analyzed the levels of oil-based compounds in caged herring embryos at four oiled and two non-oiled subtidal sites, all of which were at least 1 meter below the water's surface. Naturally spawned embryos from shallower sites were also analyzed.
Three months after the spill, caged embryos at oiled sites showed nonlethal heart defects typical of oil exposure.
But embryos from the shallower, intertidal zone not only exhibited the nonlethal heart defects, they also showed surprisingly high rates of dead tissue and mortality unrelated to heart defects.
"These embryos were literally falling apart with high rates of mortality," said Cherr.
In 2008, almost no live larvae hatched from the natural spawn collected from oiled sites.
The high death rates did not seem to be caused by natural or manmade causes unrelated to the spill, the researchers report. No toxicity was observed in embryos from unoiled sites, even those near major highways.
Embryos sampled two years later from oiled sites showed modest heart defects but no increased death rates.
Pacific herring is a commercially and ecologically important species. The fish travel in large schools, typically from the San Francisco Bay north to the Bering Sea, and serve as a forage fish for humpback whales, other mammals, birds and salmon. After two years at sea, they spawn in shallow areas of bays and estuaries.
"In San Francisco, herring is one of the last urban fisheries, and herring is an indicator for the health of the Bay," said Cherr.
###
University of California - Davis: http://www.ucdavis.edu
Thanks to University of California - Davis for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 40 time(s).
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116325/Sunlight_and_bunker_oil_a_fatal_combination_for_Pacific_herring
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Andy Blatchford The Canadian Press
MONTREAL?Weapons-grade uranium is quietly being transported within Canada, and into the United States, in shipments the country?s nuclear watchdog wants to keep cloaked in secrecy.
A confidential federal memo obtained through the Access to Information Act says at least one payload of spent, U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium fuel has already been moved stateside under a new Canada-U.S. deal.
The shipments stem from the highly publicized agreement signed last year by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama, amid fears that nuclear-bomb-making material could fall into the hands of terrorists.
The Canadian stash gradually being shipped from Chalk River, Ont., contains hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium ? large enough to make several Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs.
But even as the radioactive freight travels toward the U.S. border, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has no plans to hold public hearings or disclose which communities lie along the delivery route.
The shipments themselves are protected by intense security protocol, which means specifics like routes, transportation method, quantities and schedules remain top secret.
The federal nuclear body, a co-regulator of the uranium transfers, says rules restrict it from disclosing such information to the public.
A ministerial memorandum, classified as ?Secret,? says the nuclear watchdog considers it unnecessary to hold public sessions that would allow citizens to ask questions and comment on the shipments.
That same memorandum, dated Feb. 25, 2011, points out that recent hearings for another nuclear-shipment case generated intense public and media interest. The controversy has stalled the project to ship 16 generators from a Bruce Power nuclear plant through the Great Lakes, up the St. Lawrence River and onto Europe.
The memo, obtained by The Canadian Press, appears to warn against a repeat scenario.
?Given the public and media interest surrounding Bruce Power?s plan ... there may be an expectation that similar information be made public on the shipments of spent HEU (highly enriched uranium) fuel to the U.S., and that the CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) hold public hearings,? said the document, addressed to then-natural resources minister Christian Paradis.
?To date, the CNSC has not considered it necessary to hold public hearings on the shipment of spent HEU fuel to the U.S.?
When asked why public hearings aren?t necessary for the uranium deliveries, a commission spokeswoman replied by email: They ?are not carried out given the robustness of the packages used and due to the security issues related to the transfers of highly enriched uranium.?
The government added that there has never been a significant transport accident involving nuclear materials, anywhere in the world, and that such shipments occur regularly in Canada.
It said only authorized people or agencies, like police forces along the shipment route, are made aware of the details.
One nuclear expert said theft is the primary concern when shipping highly enriched uranium fuel ? because there is virtually no danger of leaks or explosions.
?If I were the people doing the shipping and so on, I?d want to keep as low a profile as possible ... you don?t want to give terrorists or criminals any advantage,? said Bill Garland, a professor emeritus from McMaster University in nuclear engineering.
?There?s a greater risk in the general public knowing, because then the bad guys would know as well.?
As for non-theft incidents, like possible road accidents, he described the containers carrying the substance as highly resistant to collisions, chemicals, fire and explosions.
?It?s relatively easy to contain and secure and it?s not going to go off like a bomb,? Garland said.
?I would have no hesitation sitting in the truck and driving across the country with it. It wouldn?t bother me in the least.?
Garland added that drivers share Canadian highways every day with trucks carrying loads of liquid chemicals, like gasoline and chlorine, that would pose a much bigger danger in a smash-up than nuclear waste.
While the risks are small, he said, that doesn?t mean they don?t exist. He warned that radiation could be released if someone deliberately opened a container, for instance.
Garland said moving uranium poses far more danger than shipping Bruce Power?s old generators up the St. Lawrence.
He calls the generator shipments a ?trivial radioactive situation? and a ?non-issue? because the cylinders hold very low levels of radioactive material. He said that even if they fell into the bottom of the river, the generators would pose a negligible risk.
Canada has been importing highly enriched bomb-grade uranium from the U.S. to make medical isotopes at Chalk River for the past two decades. While Canada has been pushing for all nations to move to low-enriched uranium, it maintains a large inventory of the substance at Chalk River.
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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is profoundly shocked and saddened at the bombing of two churches in Nigeria on Christmas Day, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.
He said Malaysia remained consistent with its firm stand against terrorism in all forms and manifestations, especially involving civilians, irrespective of location, including in Nigeria, Syria and Iraq.
"The taking of innocent lives and infliction of serious injuries constitute an unforgivable and inhuman act. The commission of such an act against a place of worship and during a mass congregation to mark a day of religious significance is even more deplorable," he said in a statement here Wednesday.
He added that Malaysia extended its condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families and the victims of injuries, respectively.
It was reported that at least 40 people lost their lives in the two incidents. - Bernama
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The quality of the emotional relationship between a mother and her young child could affect the potential for that child to be obese during adolescence, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed national data detailing relationship characteristics between mothers and their children during their toddler years. The lower the quality of the relationship in terms of the child's emotional security and the mother's sensitivity, the higher the risk that a child would be obese at age 15 years, according to the analysis.
Among those toddlers who had the lowest-quality emotional relationships with their mothers, more than a quarter were obese as teens, compared to 13 percent of adolescents who had closer bonds with their mothers in their younger years.
The findings mirror previous research by these scientists that showed toddlers who did not have a secure emotional relationship with their parents were at increased risk for obesity by age 4 ?. This body of work suggests the areas of the brain that control emotions and stress responses, as well as appetite and energy balance, could be working together to influence the likelihood that a child will be obese.
Rather than blaming parents for childhood obesity, the researchers say these findings suggest that obesity prevention efforts should consider strategies to improve the mother-child bond and not focus exclusively on eating and exercise.
"It is possible that childhood obesity could be influenced by interventions that try to improve the emotional bonds between mothers and children rather than focusing only on children's food intake and activity," said Sarah Anderson, assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University and lead author of the study.
"The sensitivity a mother displays in interacting with her child may be influenced by factors she can't necessarily control. Societally, we need to think about how we can support better-quality maternal-child relationships because that could have an impact on child health," she said.
The study appears online and is scheduled for publication in the January 2012 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The researchers analyzed data from 977 participants in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a project of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The sample in this national study included diverse families living in nine U.S. states whose children were born in 1991.
As part of that national study, trained observers assessed child attachment security and maternal sensitivity by documenting interactions between mothers and their children at three time points: when the children were 15, 24 and 36 months old.
In the maternal sensitivity assessment, mothers were instructed to play with their child while investigators rated several aspects of each mother's behavior, including supportiveness and respect for autonomy as well as signs of intrusiveness or hostility. Investigators rated attachment security of the children at age 15 and 36 months by monitoring a child's separation from and reunion with the mother. At 24 months, researchers assessed children's attachment security by observing mothers and children in their home.
Maternal sensitivity refers to a mother's ability to recognize her child's emotional state and respond with comfort, consistency and warmth. Psychologists describe securely attached children as those who rely on their parents as a "safe haven," which allows them to explore their environments freely, adapt easily to new people and be comforted in stressful situations. Toddlers who are insecurely attached tend to have experienced negative or unpredictable parenting, and may respond to stress with extreme anger, fear or anxiety, or avoid or refuse interactions with others.
Using these assessments of maternal sensitivity and child attachment security, Anderson and colleagues developed a maternal-child relationship quality score for their own statistical analysis. With a range of zero to six, the score served as an aggregate measure of a child's early relationship experience: Each point reflected a child's display of insecure attachment or a mother's ranking in the lowest quartile of sensitivity at one of the three assessment time points. The researchers designated a score equal to or greater than three as indicating a poor-quality emotional relationship.
The researchers calculated the body mass index (BMI) of the children using their heights and weights measured at or near age 15 years. BMIs were converted into percentiles for age and sex based on growth charts developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In accordance with current guidelines, children were considered obese if their BMI scores were at or above the 95th percentile on those charts.
A total of 241 children, or 24.7 percent, were classified as having a poor quality maternal-child relationship during early childhood based on a score of three or higher. The prevalence of obesity in adolescence was 26.1 percent among these children with the poorest early maternal-child relationships. The teen obesity prevalence was lower for children with better maternal relationships: 15.5 percent, 12.1 percent and 13 percent among those who had scores of two, one and zero, respectively.
Accounting for children's gender and birth weight ? two of several sociodemographic factors that also can influence the quality of the maternal-child relationship and risk for obesity ? children with the poorest quality early maternal-child relationship were almost 2 ? times as likely to be obese as adolescents than were children who had the best relationships with their mothers.
Anderson and colleagues suggest that this association between early childhood experiences and teen obesity has origins in the brain. The limbic system in the brain controls responses to stress as well as the sleep/wake cycle, hunger and thirst, and a variety of metabolic processes, mostly through the regulation of hormones.
"Sensitive parenting increases the likelihood that a child will have a secure pattern of attachment and develop a healthy response to stress," Anderson said. "A well-regulated stress response could in turn influence how well children sleep and whether they eat in response to emotional distress ? just two factors that affect the likelihood for obesity."
Obesity may be one manifestation of dysregulation in the functioning of the stress response system. Parents help children develop a healthy response to stress by protecting children from extreme levels of stress, responding supportively and consistently to normal levels of stress, and modeling behavioral responses to stress.
"The evidence here is supportive of the association between a poor-quality maternal-child relationship and an increased chance for adolescent obesity," Anderson said. "Interventions are effective in increasing maternal sensitivity and enhancing young children's ability to regulate their emotions, but the effect of these interventions on children's obesity risk is not known, and we think it would be worth investigating."
###
Ohio State University: http://researchnews.osu.edu
Thanks to Ohio State University for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 48 time(s).
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116322/Study_links_quality_of_mother_toddler_relationship_to_teen_obesity
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Be it winter, spring or summer break, late nights and even the wee hours of the morning, TPS energy specialists go to work to save the district money on its utility bills.
Since its introduction in 2009, the energy savings initiative has netted the district nearly $3.4 million in utility bill savings and a 20.7 percent reduction in energy consumption.
"If we can fix the building environment and equipment problems, then employees and students are going to be comfortable and we're going to save money," said John Martin, energy specialist.
Reducing indoor humidity levels by updating equipment or fixing leaks is one of the primary strategies for keeping schools comfortable even at slightly higher or lower temperatures, depending on the season.
The district's target thermostat levels are 70 degrees during cold weather months and 73 during the summer.
One degree up or down saves an average of 2 percent. That makes a real difference whether that's two percent in your home or 2 percent times 40 units on a school building - that adds up in a hurry, Martin said.
Schools simply cannot afford to keep air conditioners and boilers running 24 hours a day, all year long, or to keep lights on in gymnasiums and auditoriums when they're not in use.
That means lights off in the afterhours and thermostats set to drop down to 60 or even 55 degrees. It also means that principals and school custodians are encouraged to choose wisely when scheduling an after-hours event.
"We've asked people to rethink using the auditorium or cafeteria for a PTA meeting with only 30 people," said Pete Worley, another TPS energy specialist.
"It's much more cost-efficient to use a smaller room for smaller functions. We are constantly communicating with them what we've learned and what we're trying to accomplish. Everyone benefits from the savings."
Energy use varies widely across the district because Tulsa's schools range in construction date from the 1920s to 2000s and roofing and window materials also vary in age and condition. But significant savings, ranging from 15 percent to 59 percent, has been documented at all sites.
In addition to employing new strategies and tips they learn from its consulting partner - Waco, Texas-based Energy Education Inc. - the TPS energy specialists respond to "comfort complaints" to investigate for leaks and drafts or clogged ducts and filters that may be causing facilities to stay too hot or cold.
They also monitor the utility use and bills for every single one of the district's 90 or so facilities like hawks.
For example, when a recent water bill for Carver Middle School showed usage was up to 8,000 gallons compared to the typical month's 1,800-2,200 gallons, they investigated and found a break in a fire hydrant line on the school grounds.
"In a case like that, we hope it's as simple as finding a muddy spot in the field," said specialist Tracy DeLaughter.
It took several months for Martin to learn the source of an additional 1,200 gallons of water use at the now-closed Cherokee Elementary School.
"We had checked and checked and checked and couldn't find anything. Then one night, I was driving around the back of the building and found that a neighbor was attaching a hose to one of the school's faucets and watering his garden and maybe several neighbors' gardens at night," Martin said.
Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/articlepath.aspx?articleid=20111226_19_A1_ULNSrc917378&rss_lnk=1
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Source: www.moreover.com --- Sunday, December 25, 2011
Extract not available. ...
Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5662850828&f=378
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When I talk about my work with my parents, they invariably ask, "Why do so many people vote against their interests?" And my response is that it's messaging. While progressives may have the moral and --dare I say it?--economic high ground, the fact remains that we suck at conveying those ideas. Conservatives not only win in their ability to shape easily digestible sound bytes that sound sensible until you subject them to a little scrutiny, but they also are fantastic at message discipline. You will hear the same phrase (we can't raise taxes on the job creators!) over and over again, until it becomes conventional wisdom. Add the daily talking points-mandated Fox News anchors and you have a messaging juggernaut.
Of course, it all comes crashing down when you have a conservative who won't play. Amato caught Ben Stein on one of his periodic appearances on The O'Reilly Factor and he steadfastly refused to play along with one of the benchmarks of conservative economic policy--that taxing the rich hurts the economy--to Billo's increasing chagrin.
Source: http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/cls-top-videos-2011-31-ben-stein-blow
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NEW DELHI ? The powerful lower house of India's Parliament passed a contentious anti-corruption bill Tuesday after hours of fierce debate even as a protest leader began a three-day hunger strike demanding Parliament adopt his tougher proposals.
The "Lokpal" or watchdog bill was passed after several amendments suggested by opposition lawmakers. The bill now must be passed by the upper house and signed by the president before it comes into effect.
"Let us pass this bill because the people are waiting for us," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at the end of an impassioned speech.
The bill was passed by voice vote by a majority of the members present. The lawmakers, however, rejected a portion of the bill that aimed to amend the constitution and make the watchdog a constitutional body because the government wasn't able to garner the support of two-thirds of the members voting.
The legislative showdown is the culmination of months of angry political debate and public protests that brought tens of thousands of middle-class Indians fed up with rampant corruption into the streets and put a government battered by scandals deeper on the defensive.
Hoping to defuse activist Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusade, the government initiated debate Tuesday on a bill to create an anti-graft watchdog. But that failed to satisfy Hazare, who began his fast in India's business capital, Mumbai, demanding the proposed ombudsman be made more powerful.
After close to six hours of debate, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rose to defend the government's bill, saying that the powers of the proposed watchdog needed to have checks in place.
"Let us not create something that will destroy all that we cherish all in the name of combating corruption," he said.
"I urge all my colleagues in Parliament to rise to the occasion and look beyond politics to pass this law," Singh said.
Hazare has called the government's anti-graft legislation an attempt to fool the country.
Hazare's main complaint with the anti-graft bill before Parliament is that the proposed corruption ombudsman would not have authority over the country's top investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation. He says the ombudsman position would be too weak without that authority.
In New Delhi, India's Parliament began its debate with the government saying that the legislation maintained the "fine balance" between the powers of the legislature, the judiciary and the executive branch.
Sushma Swaraj, the leader of the main opposition, right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, however, said that as the country waited for a "strong and effective" anti-corruption watchdog, the government was offering a bill that was "so full of holes and flaws that it has disappointed all of us."
Swaraj's party has thrown its weight behind Hazare's protest.
The legislation covers senior politicians and officials. The prime minister's office is under its purview, but with restrictions. But it gives the ombudsman no powers to conduct independent investigations into complaints of graft.
Hazare has fasted three times already. He started with a five-day fast in April, after which the government invited members of his team to help draft the legislation.
In the end the bill that was passed by the lower house kept the CBI free from the control of the watchdog. The changes that the government accepted included Swaraj's demand that the provisions of the anti-corruption law not be binding on state governments, who should be free to enact their own anti-corruption legislation.
Eight hours were set aside for the debate in Parliament's lower house on Tuesday but the debate lasted close to 11 hours. The upper house is set to debate and likely pass the legislation on Wednesday.
At the Mumbai fairground where he is fasting, Hazare told supporters earlier in the day that the proposed bill was a "fraud perpetuated upon the people by the government" and that they would teach lawmakers a lesson.
He said his supporters would travel across the country to campaign against all those political parties who did not support his version of the bill.
He has also asked his supporters to court arrest after he ends his fast on Dec. 29.
Hazare, who claims inspiration from Mohandas K. Gandhi, has called his protest against corruption India's second freedom struggle and has fasted three times already to garner support for his demands.
Thousands of people, many waving Indian flags and wearing the trademark white cap made popular by first independence leader Gandhi and now Hazare, gathered in support. As of Tuesday afternoon, the crowd was thinner than the tens of thousands Hazare drew to an August protest in the Indian capital.
Hazare is not without critics who say his populist campaign attempts to vilify all politicians and hold elected officials hostage.
Dozens of those critics also came out on the streets Tuesday, waving black flags and shouting slogans as Hazare's motorcade passed through the city.
Doctors were monitoring Hazare's health and said that he was running a fever and his blood pressure was high. News reports said that ambulances were waiting on standby near the fairground.
Arvind Kejriwal, a key Hazare aide, said that his supporters had been asking him to break his fast and take medication but until late Tuesday he had refused to do so.
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Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir resumed the Indian first innings after lunch against Australia on Day 2 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. (AFP Photo)
NEW DELHI: Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag resumed the Indian first innings after lunch on the second day of the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday.Scorecard
Gambhir and Sehwag took the Indian first innings to 6/0 at lunch.
Earlier, Zaheer Khan took four wickets and Umesh Yadav and R Ashwin scalped three each as India bowled out Australia for 333 runs in their first innings.
The last Australian wicket fell when Nathan Lyon was bowled round his legs by Ashwin.
Australia lost their ninth wicket when R Ashwin had Ben Hilfenhaus caught by Virat Kohli at long-on.
Zaheer Khan took his fourth wicket when he had Peter Siddle caught behind by MS Dhoni.
Siddle played well to score 41 runs but fell to Zaheer who was reversing the ball both ways.
Zaheer had Brad Haddin caught by Virender Sehwag at gully in the second over of the day.
Zaheer broke the stubborn 72-run stand between Haddin and Peter Siddle as Sehwag took a good low catch.
The day's play started with Haddin and Siddle resuming the Australian first innings.
Australia ended Day 1 at 277/6 after being 205/5 at one stage.
Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, both playing under the shadow of recent injuries and lay-offs, struggled with their line and length under an overcast sky on a moisture-laden pitch that aided lateral movement when the ball was pitched up.
The hosts opened with debutant Ed Cowan and the belligerent David Warner who were off to a steady start after skipper Michael Clarke won the toss and surprised many by choosing to bat first.
Cowan betrayed no nerves and displayed a fine defensive technique and the right temperament to succeed in Test cricket.
Warner made a sketchy 37 that included a breath-taking pull for six off Umesh Yadav and several airy-fairy shots. He was out off the first ball after a brief rain-induced stoppage at the stroke of the first hour of play when he top-edged a Yadav bouncer that ballooned up to Dhoni behind the stumps.
Shaun Marsh, who has usurped Ricky Ponting's No. 3 position, hardly did justice to the promotion when his intended off-drive off Yadav flew to point, where Virat Kohli held a low catch.
Ponting received a warm welcome from the fans and a hot one from Yadav. The Indian pacer tested the Aussie great with a well-directed bouncer. Ponting, who was late in reacting, was struck just above his elbow and on the grille of his helmet before he regained his bearings and managed to kick the ball away from close to his stumps.
The former Australian captain struggled right through his innings of 62 in the course of which he got beaten several times, overbalanced on a couple of occasions but hung in there to raise 113 runs for the third wicket with the dormant Cowan.
The duo made the Indian pacers pay for their lack of length in the post-lunch session that was delayed by around 40 minutes because of yet another spell of light rain. Just when frustration was creeping into the Indian ranks, Ponting departed much like he had started: a touch shakily. Yadav, having softened him up with a snorter that Ponting somehow managed to evade, got his next delivery to move away late and the batsman edged it to Laxman at second slip.
Clarke, who looked fluent in making a sparkling 31 with five crisply struck boundaries, added a further 46 runs in association with Cowan, but gifted Zaheer his wicket dragging a short ball on to his stumps.
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?A Christmas Carol? by Charles Dickens gives some insight into the author?s childhood when he was forced to work in a blacking (boot polish) factory during the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s because of his family falling on hard financial times.
The character of Scrooge seems to depict Dickens? love and disdain for his own father as the character transforms from a reclusive, greedy businessman into a generous benefactor to the poor, and particularly to the family of Bob Cratchit, his harshly treated and underpaid clerk.
This Christmas favorite also has its critics claiming it is an indictment on 18th century capitalism. Hopefully business has learned to be a bit more compassionate to its work force over the last 170 years.
Returning to today, the current unemployment percentage rate registers into the high single digits. Economists view each worker also as a consumer and an unemployed worker as consuming less.
Doug Rideout
High unemployment therefore leads to the forecast that aggregate consumption will be weak in such times.
In other words, the Cratchits of the world have less to spend and the Scrooges will see their revenues drop. The economy goes into recession, and everyone lose
But if we change the recession scenario to a slow-growth scenario, business revenues can remain steady or perhaps slightly increase. From an accountant?s view, the unrepentant Scrooge would be delighted to contain labor costs, given a steady stream of revenue, particularly if he also could improve productivity.
Despite all of us rooting for the Cratchits, the hard reality is that business profit margins improve when labor is in a weak bargaining position. The good corporate profit reports of the past few quarters bear out this fact and may influence the dour economists to boost business earnings expectations, if indeed we avoid recession.
Theoretically stocks trade as a multiple of corporate earnings. For the past
10 years, an investor could question that theory as the price/earnings multiple has fallen to the low teens from the high teens in the 1990s.
The stock market has been a challenging place in which to invest. The S&P 500 Index has averaged a mere 1 percent annual return, including dividends since 1999.
Sovereign debt problems in Europe currently head the decade?s problem list that includes domestic government budget battles, subprime housing debt, a real estate bubble, an Internet bubble, corporate accounting scandals, terrorist attacks, a few wars and even a few months in 2000 when we questioned a presidential election.
However, it?s still best for investors to stay balanced in their portfolios, holding 20 percent or more in stocks because of the historical upward climb of corporate profits.
(Click on the chart to enlarge it.)
Granted, those corporate profits can be volatile as they rise and fall with business cycles ? a fact easily noted in the accompanying chart of earnings obtained from Standard & Poor?s website. (I prefer using ?operating earnings? as opposed to ?reported earnings? to reduce the volatile nature of extraordinary items.)
The current 2011 estimate is 97.45. Investors often refer to these numbers as dollars per share of the Index, such as $97.45 per share of the S&P 500.
In a way, this helps one understand the purpose of the number, but actually it is an indexed number that can be compared to previous numbers to help identify trends. For example, the 1988 operating earnings number registered 24.12 ? one-fourth of the 2011 estimate.
It is no wonder that the S&P 500 also is up roughly four times in that 23-year time period. During the past 11 years, earnings started at 56.13 in 2000 ? a cyclical peak ? compared with the 2011 estimate of 97.45.
This translates to a 5 percent annual growth rate ? which is weak in comparison to the 1990s? rate of 9.5 percent ? but the market has more than discounted this fact by not rising the last 10 years.
As earnings rise and stock prices languish, price/earnings ratios have been compressing like a coiled spring since 2000.
If collectively we Cratchits can afford to spend enough to avoid an economic recession next year and side step a cataclysmic event such as the European debt crisis, corporations should be able to attain S&P?s estimated earnings of 107.68, a 10.5 percent increase.
A very logical expectation would be for a commensurate increase in the stock market ? otherwise the price/earnings spring just becomes more compressed and valuations are even more attractive.
Stocks have nearly doubled bond returns dating back to 1927, despite badly underperforming this decade. If corporate profits continue to advance as they have historically, it will eventually resonate with investors and stock prices will rise.
The textbook investment approach of a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds remains one of the best strategies for investors, when stocks advance while the bond portion protects against the unforeseen shocks that can disrupt our best-laid plans for the markets yet to come.
Source: http://business380.com/2011/12/25/finance-what-dickens-can-teach-us-about-investing/
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Hot water bottles are inexpensive and elegantly efficient for knocking the chill off cold sheets before you slide into bed, or warming your cold feet once you?re under the covers.
Hot water bottles also come in handy as foot and hand warmers when you come in from the cold outdoors. And if you?re reading, watching television, or engaged in some other quiet activity on a cold night, a hot water bottle and a warm throw can create a cozy cocoon.
When the water turns cold, put the bottle aside and use the water for your plants.
Source: http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivinginyourhome/qt/hot_water.htm
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@sucklepig thanks for what you do! -and wish the LGB team a Merry Christmas from the JetBlue Twitter team ^MJ 
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Source: http://twitter.com/JetBlue/statuses/151030161528201216
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Credit: AP
FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2011, file photo, Arkansas' receiver Greg Childs (85) runs down field after a reception as Auburn cornerback Chris Davis (11) pursues during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game in Fayetteville, Ark. Childs' senior season has gone anything but as planned. However, the Arkansas wide receiver hopes to end his career with one final big game when the Razorbacks play Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 6. (AP Photo/April L. Brown, File)
(KMOV) -- When I was a teenager, New Years Day was bigger than Super Bowl Sunday, at least?for me. I still remember the excitement of watching the best college football teams play the biggest bowl games on that one day, virtually non-stop big time gridiron action from morning to late night. Heck, back then even the Gator Bowl was a big deal.
There won't be any college football bowl games on New Years Day this season. On January 2, you can watch Florida play Ohio State in the Gator Bowl.?Both teams have 6-6 records, which means one of them will wind up with a losing record. I realize those are two traditional powerhouse programs, but does anyone really believe they deserve to play in a bowl, much less that one?
Even more absurd is the lineup of bowl games on December 30 and 31. There are 8 teams with at least 6 losses playing in 9 bowl games on those days. UCLA, which plays in something called the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on Christmas Eve, has a 6-7 record. It plays Illinois which has a 6-6 record. So, when that game is over the teams will have combined for 14 losses.
Last night, 7th ranked Boise State pounded Arizona State 56-24 in the MAACO Bowl. In the 4th quarter BSU lead by as much as 49-10. ASU finished the game with -11 yards rushing. It was clearly a mismatch. The loss gave Arizona State a 6-7 record for the season. But despite playing a game that shouldn't have been played, the conferences for those two teams will receive $1.1 million for their participation.
There are 35 bowl games this season. Overall, it's possible that as many as 9 of those teams could wind up with losing records.
I believe the current bowl system is corrupted by greed and a false sense of accomplishment. It should be an honor to play in a bowl. Now, in the case of many bowl games, it's just a series of meaningless contests that reward undeserving teams and create marketing opportunities for corporations. The postseason should be reserved for the best teams, not those with strong fan support, key demographics, and the potential to deliver big television ratings.
The major bowls used to be named Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton and Fiesta. Now, every bowl game has a major sponsor who often comes before the traditional name of the bowl, like the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. My personal favorite is the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsetta Bowl.?
Like President Obama, and perhaps you, I support a playoff system.?In my system, you would take at least the top 8 teams, based on a ranking system that includes losses, strength of schedule and other factors. The first round of games would be played 2 weeks after the end of the conference championship games. The 2 games in the second round would be played around Christmas. The national championship game would take place 2 weeks after that.
Clearly, this would create an uproar among the bowls, but?it would also give fans a much more exciting postseason, and crown an undisputed national champion. My 8 team playoff would cut bowl games from 35 to 15.
If you eliminate conference championship games, you could double the number of playoff teams to 16 by starting the postseason a week earlier. This would increase the number of playoff games to 23, and keep most of the current bowls as part of the playoffs. I actually prefer a 16 team playoff because it has the potential for more drama, and would provide a feel of "March Madness" in college football while still?making sure?that only the best teams?participate. Even with?16 teams,?every playoff "bowl game" would be?meaningful.
Frankly, I don't care that much if the playoff games are sponsored. I prefer to see the Gator Bowl without Taxslayer.com in front of it, but bowl sponsorships don't keep me awake at night. I think the most important games could still be played as "bowl games" like the Orange or Sugar. Perhaps, the earlier rounds could be hosted by smaller bowls like the Gator and the Sun.? The participating teams could be paid, but they would be paid more for each round of the playoffs. Of course, there's still room for bowl games that would not be part of the playoffs, though I doubt those games could be successful.
I don't claim to have all the answers, but?this bowl madness?needs to end.?
Source: http://www.kmov.com/community/blogs/reporters-blog/Bowl-Madness-136146883.html
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HAVANA ? An American government subcontractor jailed in Cuba for crimes against the state is not among nearly 3,000 prisoners granted amnesty by President Raul Castro on Friday, said a senior Foreign Ministry official.
"Alan Gross is not on the list," Josefina Vidal told The Associated Press, dashing the hopes of Gross' supporters in the United States, who have been pleading with Cuban authorities to release the 62-year-old Maryland native on humanitarian grounds. Vidal heads the Foreign Ministry's North American affairs division.
In a speech to lawmakers, Castro said his country would pardon 2,900 prisoners, including some convicted of political crimes. Castro cited an upcoming visit by Pope Benedict XVI among the reasons for the amnesty, saying the humanitarian act was "a demonstration of the generosity and strength of the revolution."
He said 86 foreign prisoners from 25 countries would be freed, and that diplomats would be notified shortly.
The Cuban leader said the list is filled with inmates who, like Gross, are more than 60 years old or are ailing. Others included in the amnesty are many female inmates and young people who don't have long criminal records.
Those convicted of serious crimes like murder, espionage or drug trafficking are not be part of the amnesty.
Gross was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against the state. The case has frozen already icy relations between Washington and Havana.
Gross's family concedes he was on a USAID-funded democracy building program, but insists his goal was simply to help the island's tiny Jewish community gain better access to the Internet. They say he spoke almost no Spanish and came to Havana repeatedly, hardly the stuff of a master spy.
Cuban officials say the USAID programs seek to overthrow the government.
Gross's supporters have appealed to Castro for a humanitarian release. They say Gross ? who was obese when he was arrested ? has lost more than 100 pounds in jail and is now gaunt and increasingly depressed. Meanwhile, his daughter and elderly mother have both been diagnosed with cancer.
American Jewish leaders have also appealed for Gross's release, saying Hanukkah festivities which began this week were a perfect opportunity.
Other high-profile inmates include two El Salvadoran men convicted of taking part in a bombing spree against Havana tourist hotels in the 1990s that killed an Italian tourist. The men were originally sentenced to death, but had their sentences reduced to life in prison earlier this year.
Cuba this year freed the last of some 75 political prisoners arrested in a notorious 2003 sweep. While others remain jailed for politically motivated crimes, most of those were involved in acts of violence like hijacking.
Rights group Amnesty International no longer includes any Cuban prisoners among its list of "prisoners of conscience" around the world.
Benedict is due to arrive in Cuba in March, though exact dates have not been announced. His visit will be the first by a pontiff since Pope John Paul II's historic tour in 1998.
___
Paul Haven can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven/
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