LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The city of Los Angeles reached a $4.2 million settlement with a mother and daughter who were injured when police mistakenly opened fire on them while they were delivering newspapers during the manhunt for disgruntled ex-cop Christopher Dorner, officials said Tuesday.
The money will be split evenly, with $2.1 million going to each woman, said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the city attorney's office.
The agreement must still be approved by the Los Angeles City Council.
Margie Carranza and her 71-year-old mother, Emma Hernandez, were delivering papers around 5 a.m. on Feb. 7 when LAPD officers guarding the Torrance home of a target named in an online Dorner manifesto blasted at least 100 rounds at their pickup.
Hernandez was shot in the back and Carranza had minor injuries.
The settlement means they cannot pursue any future injury claims against the city.
Dorner had vowed warfare on Los Angeles Police Department officers and their families for what he called an unfair firing.
He killed four people, including two law enforcement officers, during his nearly one-week run from authorities.
Attorney Glen Jonas, who represents the women, called the settlement amount fair and said it spared the city from defending a case that involved eight police officers and would have likely cost millions of dollars.
"The only certainty was the litigation was going to cost everyone a lot of money and a lot of time," Jonas said.
Jonas sent a nine-page demand to the city more than a month ago that provided an opening to negotiations. He said he negotiated with City Attorney Carmen Trutanich for weeks before the deal was reached on Monday night.
"We're two veteran trial lawyers trying to settle a case, and we both understand the reality of litigation and what it costs to both sides," Jonas said.
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich agreed the settlement was fair and said in a statement he was pleased by how swiftly it was reached.
"We hope Margie and Emma will be able to move on with their lives, the city will be spared millions of dollars in litigation expense and time, and this unfortunate chapter of the Dorner saga will be put to rest," Trutanich said.
The women agreed to receive the payment after June 30 ? the end of the fiscal year ? to help the city with its budgeting, Jonas said. The agreement came in addition to a separate $40,000 settlement reached earlier for the loss of the women's pickup truck.
"For them, the money is not the issue as much as (the city) just doing the right thing," Jonas said. "Everyone agreed that they were wronged, but we didn't know whether responsibility would be assumed ... It's pleasant to get that done without having to go through years of litigation."
The eight officers remain assigned to non-field duties pending an internal investigation.
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Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams
We're no strangers to AMD's embedded processors, designed for specialist applications such as casino gaming and dashboard infotainment systems. But this latest announcement of an updated G-Series processor reveals something totally unexpected. It's not just that the chip contains four Jaguar cores of PlayStation 4 fame, or that it also includes a Radeon 8000 GPU and I/O module on a single piece of silicon -- although that's all interesting enough. The key thing is actually the "X" in the lower right corner of the logo, which signifies that this is an x86 chip of the type we'd normally expect from AMD. The question is this: Why bother even mentioning the "X" when everyone knows AMD is an x86 stalwart already? Read on and we'll explain its true significance.
Joslin scientists advance understanding of human brown adipose tissue and grow new cellsPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jeffrey Bright jeffrey.bright@joslin.harvard.edu Joslin Diabetes Center
Findings open new possibilities for research and testing treatments to combat obesity
BOSTON March 22, 2013 Joslin scientists report significant findings about the location, genetic expression and function of human brown adipose tissue (BAT) and the generation of new BAT cells. These findings, which appear in the April 2013 issue of Nature Medicine, may contribute to further study of BAT's role in human metabolism and developing treatments that use BAT to promote weight loss.
Two types of adipose (fat) tissue brown and white -- are found in mammals. Unlike the more predominant white adipose tissue (WAT) which stores fat, BAT burns fat to produce heat when the body is exposed to cold and also plays a role in energy metabolism. Human studies have shown that greater quantities of BAT are associated with lower body weight. BAT has been a major focus of study among scientists and pharmaceutical companies based on its potential as a treatment to combat obesity, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Studies in mice have identified two types of BAT: constitutive or "classical" BAT which is present at birth and persists throughout life and recruitable or "beige" BAT which can be produced from within white fat in response to metabolic conditions. These two types of BAT may also be present in humans.
Previous studies have identified the human neck as a primary location for BAT deposits. To determine the precise locations of these deposits, Joslin scientists obtained fat samples from five neck regions of patients undergoing neck surgery. Analysis of the samples showed that BAT was most abundant in deep regions of the neck, near the carotid sheath and longus colli muscles. These samples expressed the BAT marker gene, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), which is involved in heat generation. "BAT is most abundant in the deep locations of the neck, close to the sympathetic chain and the carotid arteries, where it likely helps to warm blood and raise body temperature. Now that we know where brown fat is, we can easily collect more cells for further study," says Aaron M. Cypess, M.D., Ph.D., senior author and Assistant Investigator in the Section of Integrative Physiology and Metabolism and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.
In analyzing genetic expression in superficial and deep human neck fat tissue, the fat from deep locations was found to most closely resemble cells from constitutive mouse BAT, the kind already known to consume large quantities of glucose and fat.
The Joslin scientists compared the oxygen consumption rate (OCR), which demonstrates the capacity to burn calories, of human BAT cells to mouse constitutive BAT cells and human WAT. This is the first study to directly measure brown fat cells' OCR at baseline. The OCR of the human BAT cells from the deep location next to the longus colli was nearly 50 percent of the mouse BAT cells; in contrast, the OCR of human WAT was only one-hundredth of the OCR found in the most active human BAT from the longus colli depot. "We show that at baseline, brown fat cells have a great capacity to burn fat," says Dr. Cypess.
The scientists were able to grow new functional brown fat cells (adipocytes) by differentiating precursor cells (preadipocytes) derived from both superficial and deep human neck fat tissue. When stimulated, the cells expressed the same genes as naturally occurring brown fat cells. This is the first report of the production of brown fat cells (adipogenesis) that can respond to pharmacological stimulation.
The Joslin scientists are following up on this study to learn more about the functions of BAT, including how it affects energy balance and uses glucose. Having the ability to produce brown fat cells outside the body will make it possible to develop drugs and other potential treatments that increase BAT activity to combat obesity. "Our research has significant practical applications. If we stimulate the growth of brown fat in people, it may burn their white fat and help them lose weight, which lessens insulin resistance and improves diabetes," says Dr. Cypess.
###
This study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, Harvard University and its affiliated academic health care centers, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and Eli Lilly Foundation.
About Joslin Diabetes Center
Joslin Diabetes Center, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the world's largest diabetes research and clinical care organization. Joslin is dedicated to ensuring that people with diabetes live long, healthy lives and offers real hope and progress toward diabetes prevention and a cure. Joslin is an independent, nonprofit institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School.
Our mission is to prevent, treat and cure diabetes. Our vision is a world free of diabetes and its complications. For more information, visit http://www.joslin.org.
About Joslin Research
Joslin Research comprises the most comprehensive and productive effort in diabetes research under one roof anywhere in the world. With 30?plus faculty?level investigators and an annual research budget of $36 million, Joslin researchers focus on unraveling the biological, biochemical and genetic processes that underlie the development of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and related complications.
Joslin research is highly innovative and imaginative, employing the newest tools in genetics, genomics and proteomics to identify abnormalities that may play a role in the development of diabetes and its complications. Joslin Clinic patients, and others with diabetes, have the option of participating in clinical trials at Joslin to help translate basic research into treatment innovations.
Joslin has one of the largest diabetes training programs in the world, educating 150 M.D. and Ph.D. researchers each year, many of whom go on to head diabetes initiatives at leading institutions all over the globe. For more information, visit http://www.joslinresearch.org.
[ | 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.
Joslin scientists advance understanding of human brown adipose tissue and grow new cellsPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jeffrey Bright jeffrey.bright@joslin.harvard.edu Joslin Diabetes Center
Findings open new possibilities for research and testing treatments to combat obesity
BOSTON March 22, 2013 Joslin scientists report significant findings about the location, genetic expression and function of human brown adipose tissue (BAT) and the generation of new BAT cells. These findings, which appear in the April 2013 issue of Nature Medicine, may contribute to further study of BAT's role in human metabolism and developing treatments that use BAT to promote weight loss.
Two types of adipose (fat) tissue brown and white -- are found in mammals. Unlike the more predominant white adipose tissue (WAT) which stores fat, BAT burns fat to produce heat when the body is exposed to cold and also plays a role in energy metabolism. Human studies have shown that greater quantities of BAT are associated with lower body weight. BAT has been a major focus of study among scientists and pharmaceutical companies based on its potential as a treatment to combat obesity, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Studies in mice have identified two types of BAT: constitutive or "classical" BAT which is present at birth and persists throughout life and recruitable or "beige" BAT which can be produced from within white fat in response to metabolic conditions. These two types of BAT may also be present in humans.
Previous studies have identified the human neck as a primary location for BAT deposits. To determine the precise locations of these deposits, Joslin scientists obtained fat samples from five neck regions of patients undergoing neck surgery. Analysis of the samples showed that BAT was most abundant in deep regions of the neck, near the carotid sheath and longus colli muscles. These samples expressed the BAT marker gene, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), which is involved in heat generation. "BAT is most abundant in the deep locations of the neck, close to the sympathetic chain and the carotid arteries, where it likely helps to warm blood and raise body temperature. Now that we know where brown fat is, we can easily collect more cells for further study," says Aaron M. Cypess, M.D., Ph.D., senior author and Assistant Investigator in the Section of Integrative Physiology and Metabolism and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.
In analyzing genetic expression in superficial and deep human neck fat tissue, the fat from deep locations was found to most closely resemble cells from constitutive mouse BAT, the kind already known to consume large quantities of glucose and fat.
The Joslin scientists compared the oxygen consumption rate (OCR), which demonstrates the capacity to burn calories, of human BAT cells to mouse constitutive BAT cells and human WAT. This is the first study to directly measure brown fat cells' OCR at baseline. The OCR of the human BAT cells from the deep location next to the longus colli was nearly 50 percent of the mouse BAT cells; in contrast, the OCR of human WAT was only one-hundredth of the OCR found in the most active human BAT from the longus colli depot. "We show that at baseline, brown fat cells have a great capacity to burn fat," says Dr. Cypess.
The scientists were able to grow new functional brown fat cells (adipocytes) by differentiating precursor cells (preadipocytes) derived from both superficial and deep human neck fat tissue. When stimulated, the cells expressed the same genes as naturally occurring brown fat cells. This is the first report of the production of brown fat cells (adipogenesis) that can respond to pharmacological stimulation.
The Joslin scientists are following up on this study to learn more about the functions of BAT, including how it affects energy balance and uses glucose. Having the ability to produce brown fat cells outside the body will make it possible to develop drugs and other potential treatments that increase BAT activity to combat obesity. "Our research has significant practical applications. If we stimulate the growth of brown fat in people, it may burn their white fat and help them lose weight, which lessens insulin resistance and improves diabetes," says Dr. Cypess.
###
This study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, Harvard University and its affiliated academic health care centers, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and Eli Lilly Foundation.
About Joslin Diabetes Center
Joslin Diabetes Center, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the world's largest diabetes research and clinical care organization. Joslin is dedicated to ensuring that people with diabetes live long, healthy lives and offers real hope and progress toward diabetes prevention and a cure. Joslin is an independent, nonprofit institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School.
Our mission is to prevent, treat and cure diabetes. Our vision is a world free of diabetes and its complications. For more information, visit http://www.joslin.org.
About Joslin Research
Joslin Research comprises the most comprehensive and productive effort in diabetes research under one roof anywhere in the world. With 30?plus faculty?level investigators and an annual research budget of $36 million, Joslin researchers focus on unraveling the biological, biochemical and genetic processes that underlie the development of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and related complications.
Joslin research is highly innovative and imaginative, employing the newest tools in genetics, genomics and proteomics to identify abnormalities that may play a role in the development of diabetes and its complications. Joslin Clinic patients, and others with diabetes, have the option of participating in clinical trials at Joslin to help translate basic research into treatment innovations.
Joslin has one of the largest diabetes training programs in the world, educating 150 M.D. and Ph.D. researchers each year, many of whom go on to head diabetes initiatives at leading institutions all over the globe. For more information, visit http://www.joslinresearch.org.
[ | 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.
Indian women activists of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party jostle with Indian police women outside ruling United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi?s residence during a protest against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 21, 2013. The girl was raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India's capital for two days. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Indian women activists of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party jostle with Indian police women outside ruling United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi?s residence during a protest against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 21, 2013. The girl was raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India's capital for two days. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Indian women activists of India main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party remove police barricade outside ruling United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi?s residence during a protest against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 21, 2013. The girl was raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India's capital for two days. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
An Indian women activist of India main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party shouts slogans outside ruling United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi?s residence during a protest against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 21, 2013. The girl was raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India's capital for two days. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
A banner lies on the road after a protest by Indian women activist of India main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party outside ruling United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi?s residence against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 21, 2013. The girl was raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India's capital for two days. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
NEW DELHI (AP) ? The condition of a 5-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped, raped and tortured by a man and then left alone in a locked room in India's capital for two days has improved, a doctor said Sunday, as protests continued over the authorities' handling of the case.
The girl was in critical condition when she was transferred Thursday from a local hospital to the largest government-run hospital in the country. But D.K. Sharma, medical superintendent of the state-run hospital in New Delhi where the girl was being treated, said Sunday that she was responding well to treatment and that her condition had stabilized.
Police say the girl went missing April 15 and was found two days later by neighbors who heard her crying in a locked room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her family. The girl was alone when she was found, having been left for dead by the man following the brutal attack, police say.
A 24-year-old man was arrested Saturday in the eastern state of Bihar, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from New Delhi, in connection with the incident. After being flown to New Delhi, he was in custody Sunday and was being questioned, police said.
The incident came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country.
For the second consecutive day, hundreds of people protested Sunday outside police headquarters in the capital, angry over allegations that police had ignored complaints by the girl's parents that she was missing.
About 100 supporters of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party protested outside the home of the chief of the ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, demanding that the government ensure the safety and security of women and girls in the city.
The protesters also demanded that the Delhi police chief be removed from office and that police officials accused of failing to act on the parents' complaint be dismissed.
"Police and other officials that fail to do their jobs and instead engage in abusive behavior should know that they will be punished," Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Sunday.
Police said they detained more than 50 protesters when they tried to break down barricades on the road leading to Gandhi's house. The protesters were released after a few hours.
Police also placed restrictions on the gathering of more than four people on the main avenue in the heart of New Delhi after university students said they planned to hold a demonstration there later Sunday. Despite the police order, about 100 students gathered at New Delhi's iconic India Gate monument and held a peaceful protest late Sunday.
Sexual crimes against women and children are reported every day in Indian newspapers, and women often complain about their sense of insecurity when they leave their homes.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for changes in attitudes toward women in India, where there has been a fierce debate since December's fatal New Delhi gang rape about the routine mistreatment of females.
"The gruesome assault on the little girl a few days back reminds us once again of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society," Singh said Sunday at a meeting with civil servants.
A day earlier, Singh had urged Indian society "to look within and work to root out the evil of rape and other such crimes from our midst."
The fatal beating and gang rape of a young woman aboard a moving New Delhi bus sparked outrage and spurred the government to pass tough laws for crimes against women, including the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim's death.
But activists say that merely passing strong laws is not enough, and that the government has to convey its intention to crack down on crimes against women to its officials and the police.
"Enacting strong laws are simply a first step, but it needs the government to focus urgently on implementation if it is serious about protecting children and other victims of sexual abuse," Human Rights Watch's Ganguly said.
Apr. 22, 2013 ? Individual freedom and social responsibility may sound like humanistic concepts, but an investigation of the genetic circuitry of bacteria suggests that even the simplest creatures can make difficult choices that strike a balance between selflessness and selfishness.
In a study published online this week in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from Rice University's Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and colleagues from Tel Aviv University and Harvard Medical School show how sophisticated genetic circuits allow an individual bacterium within a colony to act on its own while also ensuring that the colony pulls together in hard times.
"Our findings suggest new principles for collective decisions that allow both random behavior by individuals and nonrandom outcomes for the population as a whole," said study co-author Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at CTBP and adjunct professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice. "These new principles could be broadly applicable, from the study of cancer metastasis to the study of collective decisions by humans during times of stress."
Some species of bacteria live in complex colonies that can contain millions of individual cells. An increasing body of research on bacterial colonies has found that members often cooperate -- even to the point of sacrificing their lives -- for the survival of their colony. For example, in response to extreme stress, such as starvation, most of the individual cells in a colony of the bacteria Bacillus subtilis will form spores. Spore formation is a drastic choice because it requires the cell to kill itself to encase a copy of its genetic code in a tough, impervious shell. Though the living cell dies, the spore acts as a kind of time capsule that allows the organism to re-emerge into the world of the living when conditions improve.
"This time-travel strategy of waiting and safeguarding a copy of the DNA in the spore ensures the survival of the colony," Ben-Jacob said. "But there are other, less desperate options that B. subtilis can take to respond to stress. Some of these cells turn into highly mobile food seekers. Others turn cannibalistic, and about 10 percent enter a state called 'competence' in which they bide their time and bet on present conditions to improve."
Scientists have long been curious about how bacteria decide which of these paths to pursue. Years of studies have determined that each individual constantly senses its environment and continuously sends out chemical signals to communicate with its neighbors about the choices it is making. Experimental studies have revealed dozens of regulatory genes, signaling proteins and other genetic tools that cells use to gather information and communicate with one another.
"Bacteria don't hide their intentions from their peers in the colony," said study co-author Jos? Onuchic, co-director of CTBP, Rice's Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy and professor of chemistry and biochemistry and cell biology. "They don't evade or lie, but rather communicate their intentions by sending chemical messages among themselves."
Individual bacteria weigh their decisions carefully, taking into account the stress they are facing, the situation of their peers, the statistics of how many cells are sporulating and how many are choosing competence, Onuchic said. Each bacterium in the colony communicates via chemical "tweets" and performs a sophisticated decision-making process using a specialized complex gene network composed of many genes connected via complex circuitry. Taking a physics approach, Onuchic, Ben-Jacob and study co-authors Mingyang Lu, Daniel Schultz and Trevor Stavropoulos investigated the interplay between two components of the circuitry -- a timer that determines when sporulation occurs and a two-way switch that causes the cell to choose competence over sporulation.
"We found that the sporulation timer and the competence switch work in a coordinated fashion, but the interplay is complex because the two circuits are affected very differently by noise," said Schultz, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and a former graduate student at CTBP.
Noise results from random fluctuations in a signal; every circuit -- whether genetic or electronic -- responds to noise in its own way. In the case of B. subtilis, noise is undesirable in the sporulation timer but is a necessity for the proper function of the competence switch, the researchers said.
"Our study explains how the two opposite noise requirements can be satisfied in the decision circuitry in B. subtilis," Onuchic said. "The circuits have a special capacity for noise management that allows each individual bacterium to determine its fate by 'playing dice with controlled odds.'"
Ben-Jacob said the timer has an internal clock that is controlled by cell stress. The noise-intolerant timer typically keeps the competence switch closed, but when the cell is exposed to stress over a long period of time, the timer activates a decision gate that opens brief "windows of opportunity" in which the competence switch can be flipped.
Thanks to its architecture, the gate oscillates during the window of opportunity, he said. At each oscillation, the switch opens for a short time and grants the cell a short window in which it can use noise as a "roll of the dice" to decide whether to escape into competence.
"The ingenuity is that at each oscillation the cell also sends 'chemical tweets' to inform the other cells about its stress and attempt to escape," said Ben-Jacob, the Maguy-Glass Professor in Physics of Complex Systems and professor of physics and astronomy at Tel Aviv University. "The tweets sent by others help regulate the circuits of their neighbors and guarantee that no more than a specific fraction of cells within the colony will enter into competence."
Onuchic said the decision-making principles revealed in the study could have implications for synthetic biologists who wish to incorporate sophisticated decision systems as well as for cancer researchers who are interested in exploring the decision-making processes that cancer cells use in choosing to become dormant or to metastasize.
"This represents a real fusion of ideas from statistical physics and biology," he said.
Lu is a postdoctoral research fellow at CTBP and Stavropoulos is a former graduate student and CTBP fellow at the University of California, San Diego. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and the Tauber Family Foundation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rice University.
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Journal Reference:
Daniel Schultz, Mingyang Lu, Trevor Stavropoulos, Jose' Onuchic, Eshel Ben-Jacob. Turning Oscillations Into Opportunities: Lessons from a Bacterial Decision Gate. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01668
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.
Maurice D. Ware, a seasoned health care professional and educator, has been named CEO of The Children?s Home, effective May 1, 2013.
?After an extensive national search to find the ideal leader of our diverse and changing organization that serves children and families in need, I am extremely pleased that Maurice Ware will join The Children?s Home,? Board Chair Tom Lambeth said. ?His experience and expertise in the many areas that make up our complex and impactful human service programs fit our needs incredibly well.?
Ware was born in Albion, Mich. and earned an undergraduate degree in marketing and management from Northwood University in Midland, Mich. He earned his Master of Arts degree in counselor education/counseling psychology from Western Michigan University.
He began his professional career in 1994 in Albion as a youth specialist at Starr Commonwealth. He earned several promotions during his tenure at Starr, having served last as an assistant director. He also served as director of Residential Services for Universal Health Services (UHS). In 2000, he was named assistant principal of Albion Senior High School. In 2001, he began his career in Battle Creek (Mich.) Public Schools, as a grade principal at Battle Creek Central High School. He was then promoted to principal of South Hill Academy, an alternative school serving students from grades six through 12. Ware was later named director of Battle Creek?s Alternative Education, while still serving as a principal. He served as executive director of Educational Support Services for the Battle Creek Public Schools, before accepting the job at The Children?s Home, a licensed child placing agency for family foster care and therapeutic foster care and a licensed adoption agency specializing in foster-to-adopt placements.
Ware replaces Linda Davis, who grew up at The Children?s Home while her father was its successful school principal and football coach. Davis, a former Winston-Salem Police chief, has served as interim CEO since January 2012.
?I was impressed with the breadth and depth of Maurice?s experience,? Davis said. ?He is a leader with high energy and is innovative in his approach, and I look forward to welcoming him to campus.?
Ware said, ?I am eager to join The Children?s Home family and the Winston-Salem community. I look forward to combining my experience in all areas of mental health, treatment and education for the benefit of the children who come to The Children?s Home. I look forward to maintaining and growing our relationships with the Winston-Salem community and building on the rich heritage of The Children?s Home as we move to a very exciting future.?
Apr. 19, 2013 ? Past climate change varied remarkably between regions. This is demonstrated in a new study coordinated by the international Past Global Changes (PAGES) project, which reconstructed temperature over the past 1000 to 2000 years.
It is the first comprehensive temperature reconstruction on a continental scale. One of its main findings is that a general cooling trend, caused by different factors (e.g. orbital-driven insolation and changes in solar and volcanic activity), was ubiquitous across all continental-scale regions and was reversed by a distinct warm trend beginning at the end of the 19th century.
The scale of this project is impressive. Some 80 researchers from all over the world collaborated on the study, which has just been published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience. In one of the widest-ranging efforts yet undertaken to reconstruct climate across the globe, the international author team evaluated data from all continents to track the evolution of temperatures over the past one to two millennia.
This major project was initiated and coordinated by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) organization. PAGES was established in 1991 to facilitate international research into understanding climatic and environmental dynamics by studying the past. The program receives funding mainly from the Swiss and US national science foundations. In 2006, ambitious scientists in the PAGES network decided to organize an initiative to reconstruct the climate of the last 2000 years in unprecedented quality.
The first results of the collective effort have now been published. "A key aspect of the consortium effort was to engage regional experts who are intimately familiar with the evidence for past climate changes within their regions," says Heinz Wanner, emeritus professor at the University of Bern and one of the original architects of the PAGES 2k Network.
"Several mathematical procedures were applied to reconstruct the continental temperature time series and they were compared to assess the extent to which the main conclusions of the study stood up to the different analytical approaches." Previous attempts to reconstruct temperature changes focused on hemispheric or global-scale averages, which are important, but overlook the pronounced regional-scale differences that occur along with global changes, he points out.
Natural climate archives and documentary sources
For the present study, "Continental-scale temperature variability during the last two millennia," the researchers drew up temperature curves for large regions at seven continents, using 511 local temperature records. These were based on the analysis of tree rings, pollen, corals, lake and marine sediments, ice cores and stalagmites as well as historical documents.
In most cases the data used were highly resolved, attesting to short-term variations over decades or less, rather than smoothing over centuries. In Africa, there were too few records to accurately determine long-term temperature changes for that continent. Nevertheless, the expansive new dataset will undoubtedly be used in future studies, including for comparisons with the output of climate models used to help project future climate change.
The evolution of temperature across all the continents was noticeably more similar within the hemispheres than between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. "Distinctive periods, such as the Medieval Warm Period or the Little Ice Age stand out, but do not show a globally uniform pattern," says professor Heinz Wanner.
By around 1500 AD temperatures did indeed fall below the long-term mean everywhere. However, in the Arctic, Europe and Asia this temperature drop occurred several decades earlier than in North America and the Southern Hemisphere. These new findings will certainly stimulate vibrant discussions within the research community, Wanner believes.
Long-term cooling trend reversed
The most consistent feature across the regions over the last 2000 years was a long-term cooling trend, which was likely caused by a combination of factors such as an overall increase in volcanic activity, a decrease in solar irradiance, changes in land cover, and slow changes in earth's orbit. This cooling only came to an end toward the end of the 19th century.
The warming during the last century has reversed this long-term cooling, the study found. It remained cold only in Antarctica. An analysis of the average temperatures over 30-year periods indicates that interval from 1971-2000 was probably warmer than any other 30-year period in the last 1400 years.
Cooler 30-year periods between the years 830 and 1910 AD were particularly pronounced during weak solar activity and strong tropical volcanic eruptions. Both phenomena often occurred simultaneously and led to a drop in the average temperature during five distinct 30- to 90-year intervals between 1251 and 1820.
Warming in the 20th century was on average twice as large in the northern continents as it was in the Southern Hemisphere. During the past 2000 years, some regions experienced warmer 30-year intervals than during the late 20th century. For example, in Europe the years between 21 and 80 AD were possibly warmer than the period 1971-2000.
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Moinuddin Ahmed, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Asfawossen Asrat, Hemant P. Borgaonkar, Martina Braida, Brendan M. Buckley, Ulf B?ntgen, Brian M. Chase, Duncan A. Christie, Edward R. Cook, Mark A. J. Curran, Henry F. Diaz, Jan Esper, Ze-Xin Fan, Narayan P. Gaire, Quansheng Ge, Jo?lle Gergis, J Fidel Gonz?lez-Rouco, Hugues Goosse, Stefan W. Grab, Nicholas Graham, Rochelle Graham, Martin Grosjean, Sami T. Hanhij?rvi, Darrell S. Kaufman, Thorsten Kiefer, Katsuhiko Kimura, Atte A. Korhola, Paul J. Krusic, Antonio Lara, Anne-Marie L?zine, Fredrik C. Ljungqvist, Andrew M. Lorrey, J?rg Luterbacher, Val?rie Masson-Delmotte, Danny McCarroll, Joseph R. McConnell, Nicholas P. McKay, Mariano S. Morales, Andrew D. Moy, Robert Mulvaney, Ignacio A. Mundo, Takeshi Nakatsuka, David J. Nash, Raphael Neukom, Sharon E. Nicholson, Hans Oerter, Jonathan G. Palmer, Steven J. Phipps, Maria R. Prieto, Andres Rivera, Masaki Sano, Mirko Severi, Timothy M. Shanahan, Xuemei Shao, Feng Shi, Michael Sigl, Jason E. Smerdon, Olga N. Solomina, Eric J. Steig, Barbara Stenni, Meloth Thamban, Valerie Trouet, Chris S.M. Turney, Mohammed Umer, Tas van Ommen, Dirk Verschuren, Andre E. Viau, Ricardo Villalba, Bo M. Vinther, Lucien von Gunten, Sebastian Wagner, Eugene R. Wahl, Heinz Wanner, Johannes P. Werner, James W.C. White, Koh Yasue, Eduardo Zorita. Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia. Nature Geoscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/NGEO1797
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Nicki Minaj is known for her crazy outfits — and I’m a huge fan of them. But this was just unclassy and strange. For wearing the outfit in front of millions of people, she earned a nice, big fashion fail! Photo: Nicki Minaj’s Idol Outfit (credit FOX via YouTube) This little number got so much negative attention that people sent some pretty negative Tweets her way. Here are just a few: @hannahjrobb – I know it’s bad that I was watching idol, but you should google nicki minaj’s outfit on tonights show, because she looked like an idiot @tiffany_4prez – Nicki minaj’s outfit is very stripper like #idol #lapdance Youch. Okay, so people weren’t happy about the outfit. I just think it’s a little too revealing — even for her! What are your thoughts?
(Reuters) - A U.S. company hired by NASA to fly cargo to the International Space Station canceled plans to launch its new Antares rocket on a demonstration mission on Wednesday after a last-minute technical glitch, officials said.
The 13-story rocket developed by Orbital Sciences Corp had been slated to lift off from a new commercial spaceport in Virginia at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) and place a dummy cargo capsule into orbit.
The test flight is expected to clear the way for the company's trial cargo run to the International Space Station later this year.
If successful, Orbital Sciences would then start working on an eight-flight, $1.9 billion contract to fly supplies to the station for NASA.
About 12 minutes before launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, an umbilical line on the rocket's upper-stage fell away prematurely, prompting a cancellation, said NASA launch commentator Kyle Herring.
The next launch attempt is targeted for no earlier than Friday, although weather at the Wallops Island Flight Facility could be a problem. Meteorologists are forecasting high winds and possible thunderstorms.
"You learn a little bit from every launch attempt," John Steinmeyer, a senior project manager with Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, said during a NASA TV broadcast. "We'll take the lessons learned from today and move into another attempt as soon as it's safe to do so."
The company is one of two hired by NASA after the space shuttles were retired to fly cargo to the station, a $100 billion project of 15 nations that flies about 250 miles above the Earth.
Privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, completed its test flights in 2010 and has successfully carried out two of 12 planned cargo runs to the station for NASA under a $1.6 billion contract.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Editing by Kevin Gray and Mohammad Zargham)
DENVER (AP) ? As tens of thousands of people gather to celebrate and smoke marijuana in Denver, police will be out in full force.
But it's not the pot smoking they're concerned about at the yearly event, billed as the nation's largest April 20 celebration. Instead, police say they're focused on crowd security in light of attacks that killed three at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
"We're aware of the events in Boston," said Denver police spokesman Aaron Kafer, who declined to give specifics about security measures being taken. "Our message to the public is that, if you see something, say something."
Organizers say the event ? which drew 50,000 people last year ? could bring a record 80,000 this year, since it's the first celebration since Colorado and Washington voted to make pot legal for recreational use.
Even with the legalization, Colorado law bans open and public marijuana use. Still, authorities generally look the other way. The smoke hangs thick over a park at the base of the state Capitol, and live music keeps the crowd entertained well past the moment of group smoking at 4:20 p.m.
Group smoke-outs are also planned Saturday from New York to San Francisco. The origins of the number "420" as a code for pot are murky, but the drug's users have for decades marked the date 4/20 as a day to use pot together.
Denver's celebration this year also features the nation's first open-to-all Cannabis Cup, a marijuana competition patterned after one held in Amsterdam.
Similar to a beer or wine festival, pot growers compete for awards for taste, appearance and potency of their weed. Denver's event, sponsored by High Times magazine, has sold out more than 5,000 tickets. Snoop Lion, the new reggae- and marijuana-loving persona for the rapper better known as Snoop Dogg, will receive a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from High Times. And the hip-hop group Cypress Hill was set to perform a sold-out concert Saturday evening in Colorado's iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
The celebration should be especially buoyant this year, organizer Miguel Lopez said, because it marks the first observation since Colorado and Washington voted to defy federal drug law and declare pot OK for adults over 21.
Both states are still waiting for a federal response to the votes and are working on setting up commercial pot sales, which are still limited to people with certain medical conditions. In the meantime, pot users are free to share and use the drug in small amounts.
Lopez said the holiday is more than an excuse to get high ? it's also a political statement by people who want to see the end of marijuana prohibition.
"You don't have to smoke weed to go to 4/20 rallies. You don't have to be gay to go to a Pride festival. You don't have to be Mexican to celebrate Cinco de Mayo," Lopez said.
"That's what this is. It's a celebration, it's a statement about justice and freedom and this movement."
Colorado's weekend celebrations drew plenty of marijuana activists from out of state.
"Never have I ever imagined I could do this on American soil," said Eddie Ramirez, an Austin, Texas, pot user who attended a "420 Happy Hour" Friday at a downtown Denver hotel. "Being a smoker my whole life, this has been on my bucket list ? go scuba diving, go deep-sea fishing and go to the Cannabis Cup."
One place pot-smoking won't be as evident this year is the University of Colorado in Boulder. The school once was home to the nation's largest group smoke-out on April 20. More than 10,000 people showed up in 2010, and in 2011 Playboy magazine cited the celebration and named the campus the nation's No. 1 party school.
Last year, school officials closed the site of the party, Norlin Quad, on April 20. They planned to rope off the area again this year.
Lopez conceded that many don't appreciate the April 20 smoke-outs. But he insisted they at least force marijuana critics to talk about the drug and consider its legal status.
"Not everybody likes everything in America. That's one of the great things, that we can express ourselves," Lopez said.
___
Associated Press writer Alexandra Tilsley contributed.
___
Kristen Wyatt can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt
KARZAKKAN, Bahrain (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters waved banners and chanted against the Bahrain government on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Formula One race, which the opposition sees as a chance to attract international attention to its pro-democracy campaign.
The Gulf Arab kingdom has arrested several people accused of stealing and burning cars and scaled up security ahead of the Grand Prix, the biggest sporting event hosted by the U.S.-allied country and which is watched by millions around the world.
The protests were not expected to have any effect on qualifying taking place Friday and Saturday at the Sakhir desert circuit about 30 km (19 miles) southwest of the capital Manama or the race itself on Sunday.
The government is hoping for a healthy turnout this year despite violent unrest that has hit the country since pro-democracy protests started in early 2011.
Protesters and activists accuse the government of trying to use the race to paper over human rights abuses and disguise political problems they say still plague the country.
Some 2,000 to 3,000 demonstrators marched down a highway in Karzakkan, a village just north of the Sakhir circuit, to press that point on Thursday. They held banners reading, "Democracy is our right" and demanded the release of political prisoners.
"Down, down with Al Khalifa," they chanted, referring to the Shi'ite-majority country's Sunni ruling family.
The race was cancelled in 2011 when protests were crushed and at least 35 people were killed. Activists put the death toll far higher.
Last year's race went ahead against a backdrop of burning tyres and riot police firing teargas at protesters throwing petrol bombs in Shi'ite Muslim villages.
A 44-year-old wholesale trader at the protest who gave his name as Abu Hassan said the government was using the race to hide the need for political change.
"This is marketing, an attempt to say there's no problems in the country. They use this as marketing for the outside world," he said. "The country needs reform from the inside."
The United States has tempered criticism of Bahrain, which it sees as a key ally in the region-wide tussle between Shi'ite Muslim Iran and Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and which hosts its navy's Fifth Fleet.
ARRESTS
Last week, Justice Minister Khalid al-Khalifa warned that the race - which Bahrain pays an estimated $40 million a year to host - should not be "politicized".
"I believe that anyone who is really putting the interest of his country in front of his eyes will see Formula One as an opportunity," he told Reuters.
"It also raised Bahrain's name all over the world and it is very important for us to keep this sport away from any kind of politicization," he said.
Bahrain's state news agency said late on Wednesday that authorities had arrested a man who later confessed to an incident in which a car burned and exploded in the country's financial district on April 14.
Four other people accused of stealing and burning a car near a roundabout were also arrested and another person was detained over an accusation he blocked a main road and caused damage to a Bahraini's car.
Amnesty International said human rights activists claimed dozens of protesters had been arrested ahead of the race.
"It's getting worse because of the Formula One," said Rula al-Saffal, a human rights campaigner, at the Karzakkan march, as hundreds of women in full black dresses and headscarves marched past. "They want all the activists in jail."
Human Rights Watch said on April 10 that police had arrested 20 opposition activists in towns near the circuit with the apparent intention of preventing a repeat of the 2012 protests.
The government denied those arrests had taken place. It also denied accusations by rights groups that it uses excessive force in cracking down on protests and says it arrests suspects in accordance with the rule of law.
(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by William Maclean and Sonya Hepinstall)
Golden State's Stephen Curry made NBA history when he drained his 270th 3-pointer of the season against Portland on Wednesday night, breaking Ray Allen's single-season record of 269.
Going into the season finale with 268, Curry didn't waste any time shooting from long range, missing two 3-pointers in the first two minutes. He tied the record on his third attempt later in the first quarter. With under seven minutes left in the half, Curry received a pass on the right wing in transition and didn't hesitate. Swish.
John Schuhmann
Single-season 3-point records set this year: Most by the league, by a team (NYK) & by an individual (Steph Curry).
The 25-year-old went on to hit two more free throws setting the record at 272. He finished with 15 and shot 4-for-11 from long range, setting his shooting percentage from behind the arc at 45.3 percent, as the Warriors went on to beat the Trail Blazers 99-88.
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ? Golden State's Stephen Curry set a record for 3-pointers in a season when he hit his 270th in the second quarter of the Warriors' game Wednesday night against the Trail Blazers.
The shot with 6:49 left in the half put Curry in front of Ray Allen's mark of 269 set in 2005-06.
Healthy for most of this season after two surgeries on his right ankle, Curry came into the game averaging nearly 3.5 3-pointers a game.
He made 16 3-pointers in the previous two games to close within one of Allen's record set with the Seattle SuperSonics. Curry hit his first 3 of the night with 6:55 to go in the first quarter.
Apr. 15, 2013 ? A team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has identified a genetic signature that appears to reflect the risk of tumor recurrence or spread in men surgically treated for prostate cancer. If confirmed in future studies, this finding not only may help determine which patients require additional treatment after the cancerous gland has been removed, it also may help address the most challenging problem in prostate cancer treatment -- distinguishing tumors that require aggressive treatment from those that can safely be monitored.
The report has been issued online in PNAS Early Edition.
"Radical prostatectomy is the standard of care for men whose cancer is advanced but confined to the prostate gland, but we know that the factors we use to determine which patients need radiation therapy after surgery are inadequate," says W. Scott McDougal, MD, of the MGH Department of Urology, corresponding author of the report. "The treatments available to our patients can have significant impact on their quality of life, so a better way to know which patients with localized cancer need additional therapy after surgery and which require no additional treatment is a significant unmet need."
Gene expression signatures indicating patient prognosis and sometimes the most appropriate treatment have been incorporated into care for breast cancer and other tumors. Studies looking for such markers in prostate cancer have had variable results, and their potential usefulness to guide treatment has not been determined. For the current study the research team -- led by Chin-Lee Wu, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Pathology -- examined samples of malignant tissue from around 200 prostate cancer patients who had radical prostatectomies at the MGH between 1993 and 1995, analyzing the expression patterns of more than 1,500 genes associated with prostate cancer in earlier studies. With the results of that analysis, they developed a 32-gene index to reflect the likelihood that a patient's tumor would recur, signified by detectable levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) after the gland had been remove, or spread.
To validate the usefulness of the index, they used it to analyze tissue samples from a different group of almost 300 patients who had their prostates removed in 1996 and 1997, comparing the index with currently used prognostic factors -- such as PSA levels, physical examination, and a tumor's microscopic appearance -- to see how accurately each predicted the actual incidence of tumor recurrence or metastasis during the 10 years after surgery. The expression-based index proved to be the most accurate method. Among those it designated as high-risk, the actual incidence of tumor recurrence was 47 percent and of metastasis, 14 percent. Among those classified as intermediate risk, actual recurrence was 22 percent, and metastasis occurred in 2 percent. No recurrence or metastasis were seen in patients classified as low-risk by the gene-expression index.
To get a sense of whether the index could help determine risk at the time of diagnosis, the researchers used it to assess presurgical needle biopsy samples from 79 patients in the validation group. The risk assignment based on biopsy results closely matched the assessment based on surgically removed tissue, and the prognostic ability of the index was better than that of other pathological information available at the time a biopsy was taken. Because the current report is based on study of patients treated at a single institution, the authors note, it requires confirmation in larger, multi-institutional studies.
"A more accurate prognosis at the time of diagnosis could give patients and their physicians much more confidence in choosing a definitive therapy or pursuing active surveillance for those at low risk, which could reduce over-treatment, a critical issue in disease management," says lead author Wu, an associate professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. McDougal is the the Kerr Professor of Urology, at HMS.
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C.-L. Wu, B. E. Schroeder, X.-J. Ma, C. J. Cutie, S. Wu, R. Salunga, Y. Zhang, M. W. Kattan, C. A. Schnabel, M. G. Erlander, W. S. McDougal. Development and validation of a 32-gene prognostic index for prostate cancer progression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; 110 (15): 6121 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215870110
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New details of the highly anticipated comprehensive immigration reform bill have leaked ahead of its introduction to Congress on Tuesday (April 16). Most of the technology industry will be pleased that it nearly doubles the number of high-skilled visas (H1-B), from the 65,000 to 110,000, with a maximum of 185,000 in the future. However, as the Washington Post reports, it will also require employers who heavily rely on H1-B visas to pay fees and higher salaries.
LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gold headed for its biggest two-day drop in 30 years on Monday and oil, copper and grains prices also tumbled as investors fled most financial markets after disappointing Chinese economic data underscored global growth worries.
With U.S. stocks on track for their first two-day losing streak in a month and Treasuries prices near flat, few assets appeared to be taking in new money amid growing caution the world economy was headed for another recession.
"I think everyone's going cash. People are either not deploying capital or just taking profit," said Sean McGillivray, vice president of asset allocation at Oregon's Great Wealth Pacific Management, a commodities-focused asset manager.
Commodities-linked currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars declined more than 1 percent against the U.S. currency <.dxy>, weighing further on energy, metals and crop prices.
"Nearly every commodity has taken a hit today. The only markets in the world that have been kind of detached from this are the German and French stock markets and U.S. large cap stocks," said James Dailey at Pennsylvania-based TEAM Financial Asset Management.
The 19-commodity Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index <.trjcrb>, a globally watched indicator, fell 2 percent and headed for its sharpest one-day loss since mid-September. The index hit its lowest level since the end of June.
GOLD TUMBLES
Gold, which dropped 5 percent on Friday, sunk nearly 8 percent more on Monday, sliding deeper into bear territory. The precious metal's spot price fell over $30 in a matter of minutes at one point, breaching support at $1,400 per ounce.
The sharp selloff in gold came as an "unexpected event" to many hedge funds, said long-time gold investor John Burbank, who runs San Francisco-based hedge fund Passport Capital.
Oil fared scarcely better than gold, sliding nearly 3 percent. Other precious metals were caught in the downdraft, with silver briefly dropping 10 percent. Industrial metals plummeted, with copper at its lowest price in over a year.
Wheat led the decline in grains, falling nearly 3 percent. In other crops, arabica coffee plumbed a near 3-year low.
Both oil and gold have been under substantial selling pressure since last week. Bullion has come off the most, shedding around 9.5 percent since last Monday's close, while crude has lost about 3.5 percent.
Gold was under pressure from a variety of factors, including a proposed sale of Cypriot gold holdings, and more fund-based investors headed for the exits after China's data on Monday.
China's economy grew 7.7 percent in the first quarter, undershooting market expectations for an 8.0 percent expansion and frustrating investor hopes that the world's No. 2 economy would rebound after posting its weakest growth in 13 years in 2012.
CHINA DEEPENS SELLOFF
The weaker-than-forecast GDP growth was backed by slower increases in China's industrial production and fixed-asset investment, despite strong lending growth in March. Besides being the world's No. 2 economy, China is the biggest buyer of industrial metals and many other commodities.
"If you want to be worried about China, there's plenty to keep you awake at night," said Sean Corrigan, chief investment strategist at Diapason Commodities Management in Switzerland.
By 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT), spot gold hovered around $1,365 an ounce, after hitting a two-year low at $1,384.69. The liquidation in gold was widespread, with selling pressure coming from exchange-traded funds to even physical buyers in China and India, who have long supported the shiny metal.
"This is a market that has only got one thing on its mind ... get me out," said David Govett, head of precious metals at Marex Spectron in London.
Brent crude oil sank below $101 a barrel to a nine-month low and was threatening to break below $100 for the first time since early July. It was down about 15 percent from this year's peak of $119.17 reached in early February.
Prior to the latest Chinese and U.S. data, the International Energy Agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had already lowered their global oil demand growth for 2013.
FED EXTENDS WORRY
Aside from worries over the economy, investors were also spooked by thoughts that the U.S. Federal Reserve may end sooner rather than later its bond-buying binge that has supported commodity and stock prices for over two years now. The Fed started the stimulus action to help the economic recovery after the financial crisis.
"What we now see is panic selling, perhaps triggered by the Fed's stimulus view," said Dominic Schnider, an analyst at UBS Wealth Management.
Minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's March policy meeting released last week showed some officials keen on ending the stimulus this year, though the minutes predated last month's poor non-farm payrolls data and Friday's weak retail sales.
In copper, the benchmark three-month contract in London fell to its lowest level in 1-1/2 years to $7,085 a tonne, while aluminum hit a 3-1/2 year low.
(Additional reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr in Singapore and Eric onstad in London; Editing by Jane Baird and Jim Marshall)
A new 1000-year Antarctic Peninsula climate reconstruction shows that summer ice melting has intensified almost ten-fold, and mostly since the mid 20th Century. Summer ice melt affects the stability of Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers.
The research, published this week in the journalNature Geoscience, adds new knowledge to the international effort that is required to understand the causes of environmental change in Antarctica and to make more accurate projections about the direct and indirect contribution of Antarctica's ice shelves and glaciers to global sea level rise.
In 2008 a UK-French science team drilled a 364-metre long ice core from James Ross Island, near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, to measure past temperatures in the area. They discovered that this ice core could also give a unique and unexpected insight into ice melt in the region.
Visible layers in the ice core indicated periods when summer snow on the ice cap thawed and then refroze. By measuring the thickness of these melt layers the scientists were able to examine how the history of melting compared with changes in temperature at the ice core site over the last 1000-years.
Lead author Dr Nerilie Abram of The Australian National University and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) says,
"We found that the coolest conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula and the lowest amount of summer melt occurred around 600 years ago. At that time temperatures were around 1.6?C lower than those recorded in the late 20th Century and the amount of annual snowfall that melted and refroze was about 0.5%. Today, we see almost ten times as much (5%) of the annual snowfall melting each year.
"Summer melting at the ice core site today is now at a level that is higher than at any other time over the last 1000 years. And whilst temperatures at this site increased gradually in phases over many hundreds of years, most of the intensification of melting has happened since the mid-20th century."
This is the first time it has been demonstrated that levels of ice melt on the Antarctic Peninsula have been particularly sensitive to increasing temperature during the 20th Century.
Dr Abram explains,
"What that means is that the Antarctic Peninsula has warmed to a level where even small increases in temperature can now lead to a big increase in summer ice melt."
Dr Robert Mulvaney from the British Antarctic Survey led the ice core drilling expedition and co-authored the paper. He says,
"Having a record of previous melt intensity for the Peninsula is particularly important because of the glacier retreat and ice shelf loss we are now seeing in the area. Summer ice melt is a key process that is thought to have weakened ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula leading to a succession of dramatic collapses, as well as speeding up glacier ice loss across the region over the last 50 years."
In other parts of Antarctica, such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the picture is more complex and it is not yet clear that the levels of recent ice melt and glacier loss are exceptional or caused by human-driven climate changes.
Dr Abram concludes,
"This new ice core record shows that even small changes in temperature can result in large increases in the amount of melting in places where summer temperatures are near to 0?C, such as along the Antarctic Peninsula, and this has important implications for ice instability and sea level rise in a warming climate."
###
British Antarctic Survey: http://www.nerc-bas.ac.uk
Thanks to British Antarctic Survey for this article.
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Sure, watching YouTube videos in HD is great when you want clarity, but maybe you've been yearning for that grainy, tape-recorded look. Marking what's apparently the 57th anniversary of cassette-based video recording, the YouTube team has snuck a VHS tape-shaped button on select videos. Clicking it will the throw a filter over the content, providing a highly distorted and nostalgic feast for the eyes. There's no official list of compatible content, but the option seems to be available on most of the videos on YouTube's native channel. We have a feeling at least one VCR enthusiast will be quite pleased.
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New details of the highly anticipated comprehensive immigration reform bill have leaked ahead of its introduction to Congress on Tuesday (April 16). Most of the technology industry will be pleased that it nearly doubles the number of high-skilled visas (H1-B), from the 65,000 to 110,000, with a maximum of 185,000 in the future. However, as the Washington Post reports, it will also require employers who heavily rely on H1-B visas to pay fees and higher salaries.