Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Russia blames radiation for space probe failure (AP)

MOSCOW ? The head of Russia's space agency said Tuesday that cosmic radiation was the most likely cause of the failure of a Mars moon probe that crashed to Earth this month, and suggested that a low-quality imported component may have been vulnerable to the radiation.

Vladimir Popovkin also said a manned launch to the International Space Station is being postponed from March 30 because of faults found in the Soyuz capsule.

The statements underline an array of trouble that has afflicted the country's vaunted space program in recent months, including the August crash of a supply ship for the space station and last month's crash of a communications satellite.

Since the end of the U.S. space shuttle program last year, Russian craft are the only means to send crew to and from the ISS.

The unmanned Phobos-Ground probe was to have gone to the Mars moon of Phobos, taken soil samples and brought them back. But it became stuck in Earth orbit soon after its launch on Nov. 9. It fell out of orbit on Jan. 15, reportedly off the coast of Chile, but no fragments have been found.

The failure was a severe embarrassment to Russia, and Popovkin initially suggested it could have been due to foreign sabotage.

But on Tuesday he said in televised remarks that an investigation showed the probable cause was "localized influence of heavily radiated space particles."

Popovkin, speaking in the city of Voronezh where the report was presented to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, said two units of the Phobos-Ground probe's onboard computer system went into an energy-saving "restart" mode, apparently due to the radiation, while the craft was in its second orbital circuit.

It was not immediately clear why the units could not be brought out of that mode.

Popovkin said that some microchips used on the craft were imported and possibly of inadequate quality to resist radiation. He did not specify where the chips were manufactured.

Yuri Koptev, a former space agency head who led the Phobos-Ground investigation, said 62 percent of the microchips used in the probe were "industrial" class, a less-sophisticated level than should be used in space flight.

Popovkin said the craft's builder, Moscow-based NPO Lavochkin, should have taken into account the possibility of radiation interfering with the operation and said Lavochkin officials would face punishment for the oversight.

Popovkin later announced that a March 30 planned launch of two Russian cosmonauts, Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, and NASA's astronaut Joseph M. Acaba ? to the space station will be postponed "likely until the end of April" because of problems with the capsule. He did not specify, but the state news agency RIA Novosti cited the director of Russia's cosmonaut-training program as saying leaks had been found in the capsule's seals.

It would be the second significant postponement of a manned Russian launch in the past year. The August crash of the supply ship pushed back a manned launch to the ISS because the booster rocket that failed in the crash was similar to the ones used in manned missions.

Currently, the ISS hosts a crew of six, including three Russians, two Americans and a Dutchman.

The Soyuz capsule is scheduled to bring back two Russian cosmonauts ? Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin and U.S. astronaut Daniel Burbank.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_sc/eu_russia_falling_spacecraft

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Genetic breakthrough for brain cancer in children

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) ? An international research team led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) has made a major genetic breakthrough that could change the way pediatric cancers are treated in the future. The researchers identified two genetic mutations responsible for up to 40 per cent of glioblastomas in children -- a fatal cancer of the brain that is unresponsive to chemo and radiotherapy treatment. The mutations were found to be involved in DNA regulation, which could explain the resistance to traditional treatments, and may have significant implications on the treatment of other cancers.

The study was published this week in the journal Nature.

Using the knowledge and advanced technology of the team from the McGill University and G?nome Qu?bec Innovation Centre, the researchers identified two mutations in an important gene known as the histone H3.3. This gene, one of the guardians of our genetic heritage, is key in modulating the expression of our genes. "These mutations prevent the cells from differentiating normally and help protect the genetic information of the tumor, making it less sensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapy," says Dr. Nada Jabado, hematologist-oncologist at The Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and principal investigator of the study.

"This research helps explain the ineffectiveness of conventional treatments against cancer in children and adolescents -- we've been failing to hit the right spot," says Dr. Jabado, who is also an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at McGill University. "It is clear now that glioblastoma in children is due to different molecular mechanisms than those in adults, and should not be treated in the same way. Importantly, we now know where to start focusing our efforts and treatments instead of working in the dark."

Inappropriate regulation of this gene has been observed in other cancers such as colon, pancreatic, lymphoma, leukemia and pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer, and future research could therefore reveal improved treatments for these diseases. "What is significant here is that for the first time in humans we have identified a mutation in one of the most important genes that regulates and protects our genetic information. This is the irrefutable proof that our genome, if modified, can lead to cancer and probably other diseases. What genomics has shown us today is only the beginning," says Dr. Jabado.

"G?nome Qu?bec is proud to have contributed to a project whose results will make a significant impact on the treatment of pediatric glioblastoma," underlines Marc Le Page, President and CEO of G?nome Qu?bec. "The outstanding contribution of experts in genomics and new sequencing technologies, made by the McGill University and G?nome Qu?bec Innovation Centre and as part of Dr. Jabado's project, is further proof that genomics has become essential for development and innovation in medical research. I wish to acknowledge the excellence of the teams involved in this study and the model of interdisciplinary collaboration that was implemented."

"Personalized medicine has amazing potential for many areas of health care, including infection, rare diseases and cancer. Researchers, like this team, play a vital role in translating discoveries into improved patient care," says Dr. Morag Park, Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Cancer Research. "Through research advancements like this, there is now greater emphasis on using genetic information to make medical decisions. We congratulate Dr. Jabado and her team on these results."

Brain tumours are the primary cause of death for children with cancer in Europe and North America. The diagnosis of glioblastoma in a child or adolescent remains a death sentence and about 200 children in Canada die every year of this cancer. Most children will die within the two years of their diagnosis regardless of treatment.

This work was supported by the Cole Foundation, and was funded in part by Genome Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) with co-funding from Genome BC, G?nome Qu?bec, CIHR-ICR (Institute for Cancer Research) and C17, through the Genome Canada/CIHR joint ATID Competition (project title: The Canadian Paediatric Cancer Genome Consortium: Translating next generation sequencing technologies into improved therapies for high-risk childhood cancer.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Jeremy Schwartzentruber, Andrey Korshunov, Xiao-Yang Liu, David T. W. Jones, Elke Pfaff, Karine Jacob, Dominik Sturm, Adam M. Fontebasso, Dong-Anh Khuong Quang, Martje T?njes, Volker Hovestadt, Steffen Albrecht, Marcel Kool, Andre Nantel, Carolin Konermann, Anders Lindroth, Natalie J?ger, Tobias Rausch, Marina Ryzhova, Jan O. Korbel, Thomas Hielscher, Peter Hauser, Miklos Garami, Almos Klekner, Laszlo Bognar, Martin Ebinger, Martin U. Schuhmann, Wolfram Scheurlen, Arnulf Pekrun, Michael C. Fr?hwald, Wolfgang Roggendorf, Christoph Kramm, Matthias D?rken, Jeffrey Atkinson, Pierre Lepage, Alexandre Montpetit, Magdalena Zakrzewska, Krzystof Zakrzewski, Pawel P. Liberski, Zhifeng Dong, Peter Siegel, Andreas E. Kulozik, Marc Zapatka, Abhijit Guha, David Malkin, J?rg Felsberg, Guido Reifenberger, Andreas von Deimling, Koichi Ichimura, V. Peter Collins, Hendrik Witt, Till Milde, Olaf Witt, Cindy Zhang, Pedro Castelo-Branco, Peter Lichter, Damien Faury, Uri Tabori, Christoph Plass, Jacek Majewski, Stefan M. Pfister, Nada Jabado. Driver mutations in histone H3.3 and chromatin remodelling genes in paediatric glioblastoma. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature10833

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ZhRak7HAzro/120130102522.htm

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Researchers discover cancer in Egyptian mummy

? A professor from American University in Cairo said the discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment.

AUC professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said Sunday the mummy was a man who died in his forties.

She said this was the second oldest known case of prostate cancer.

?Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors,? she said.

A statement from AUC said the oldest known case came from a 2,700-year-old skeleton of a king in Russia.

Source: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2012/jan/29/researchers-discover-cancer-egyptian-mummy/

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Exxon to sell part of Tonen stake for about $3.9 billion:sources (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) plans to sell a large part of its 50 percent stake in TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK (5012.T) back to its Japanese refining partner in a deal that could be worth about 300 billion yen ($3.9 billion), and will make an announcement as early as Monday, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Exxon Mobil will retain about a 20 percent stake in TonenGeneral but the deal will mark a de facto retreat from the world's third-largest economy by the U.S. oil giant, which is focusing its resources on emerging markets and development of natural resources.

The move could also spark realignment among Japan's oil refiners, which have been cutting capacity to cope with falling demand caused by a weak economy and a shift to more efficient and environmentally friendly forms of energy, analysts have said.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Exxon was in talks to sell part of the stake back to TonenGeneral.

TonenGeneral, which imports and distributes Exxon oil in Japan, ranks as the country's No. 2 refiner behind JX Holdings (5020.T). Smaller rivals include Idemitsu Kosan Co (5019.T), Cosmo Oil (5007.T) and Showa Shell (5002.T).

Exxon and TonenGeneral aim to complete the deal around summer, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

TonenGeneral will seek funds from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, Sumitomo Trust Banking, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and Mitsubishi Trust Bank to buy back the stake, the sources said.

($1 = 76.7350 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Taro Fuse and Emoto Emi; Writing by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Ed Lane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/bs_nm/us_exxon_tonengeneral

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

UFC on Fox 2 opener: Camozzi takes out Jacoby

CHICAGO --Chris Camozzi is one tough guy.

The veteran fighter dislocated a finger in the second and fought through it by only throwing jabs and hooks. In the final round, he dropped Justin Jacoby with great outside leg kick. Camozzi pounced to go for the kill and worked a guillotine choke. Jacoby backed up to the cage where he tapped just seconds later at the 1:08 mark of the third.

Camozzi (16-5, 4-2 UFC) came out guns-a-blazing throwing big shot landing his best at the end of the first. With less than 10 seconds left, he dropped Jacoby right a big right. Jacoby scrambled well to survive.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-fox-2-opener-camozzi-takes-jacoby-215638663.html

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Yankee matchup

Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey

By STUART CONDIE

updated 5:43 p.m. ET Jan. 27, 2012

LONDON - Landon Donovan set up both goals for Everton, which rallied to beat Fulham and Clint Dempsey 2-1 Friday night for a berth in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

With the two biggest stars on the U.S. national team facing each other for the first time in six years, Danny Murphy put Fulham ahead at Goodison Park with a 14th-minute penalty kick that beat American goalkeeper Tim Howard.

Donovan's cross from the right flank was headed in by Denis Stracqualursi in the 27th minute for his first goal for Everton. Again passing the extreme right side, Donovan's cross was headed in by Marouane Fellaini in the 73rd minute.

Teammates on the last two U.S. World Cup teams, Donovan and Dempsey had not faced each other since May 6, 2006.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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'Bad losers' and?'animals'

Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez has labeled Real Madrid's players bad losers and animals after his club won their latest ill-tempered matchup.

Yankee matchup

With the two biggest stars on the U.S. national team facing each other for the first time in 6 years, Landon Donovan?leads Everton past Clint Dempsey's Fulham.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46169073/ns/sports-soccer/

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Giffords says goodbye with a plea for civility (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The applause rolled through the big chamber, growing ever louder as hundreds of Republicans and Democrats suddenly realized Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was back in the House. But this time she had come to say goodbye.

Fellow lawmakers gave her a fitting send-off: cheers, hugs, a cascade of tributes and plenty of tears in a rare moment of political unity.

A year since that fateful Saturday morning when Giffords was severely wounded during a shooting rampage in her home district, the Arizona congresswoman resigned on Wednesday with a plea for civility ? and a hint that she'll be back on the national stage. For now, the 41-year-old said, her movements and speech still halting, she needs to focus on her recovery.

For all the kind words showered on her, Giffords reflected in her resignation letter about a level of respect that seems like an aberration these days in a bitterly divided Washington.

In her five years in Congress, she said, "Always I fought for what I thought was right. But never did I question the character of those with whom I disagreed. Never did I let pass an opportunity to join hands with someone just because he or she held different ideals."

Said Republican Rep. Ted Poe of Texas in the first of many tributes: "Gabby is the spirit of bipartisanship that we should all learn from."

Giffords' friend Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., became emotional before reading Giffords' resignation letter in the well of the House. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., held Giffords' hand. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, cried after Giffords slowly made her way to the podium and handed him the envelope with her resignation letter.

Last January, a gunman opened fire at Giffords' "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson, killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge and wounding 13, including Giffords who suffered a gunshot wound to her head. She has spent the past year recovering, showing up in the House just once last August to vote on raising the nation's borrowing authority.

That appearance stirred speculation about her political future and whether she would seek another term or even pursue an open Senate seat.

Giffords put that talk to rest on Sunday, announcing in a Web video that she would resign this week. On Monday, she met with survivors of the shootings in Arizona, , finishing the event that she had started outside a supermarket. On Tuesday night, she received thunderous applause and a hug from President Barack Obama at his State of the Union address.

Colleagues and friends stood with her, Flake by her side. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., had her back.

On Wednesday, Republicans and Democrats turned a morning debate over Giffords' last bill into a forum to praise her work and perseverance.

"We haven't seen the last of Gabby Giffords," said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas. "I believe ... whatever the future holds for her she has made this a better place."

Around 10 a.m., Giffords entered the chamber through the main door, the same one Obama used the previous night. Wasserman Schultz assisted her as she made her way down the aisle, greeted warmly by colleagues with kisses and hugs. She sat in the front row for a flurry of tributes. In the gallery sat her mother, Gloria, and husband, retired Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, the former astronaut.

"All of us come to the floor today ... to salute her as the brightest star among us, the brightest star Congress has ever seen," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he received a call from Kelly on Sunday informing him of Giffords' plans to resign. He said Giffords' "strength against all odds serves and will continue to serve as a daily inspiration to all of us."

Said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., "The House of Representative has been made proud by this extraordinary daughter of the House. Gabby, we love you, we have missed you."

Prolonged standing ovations and spontaneous whoops marked the tributes. Giffords briefly waved at Kelly and her mother when their names were mentioned.

Surrounded by colleagues and friends, Giffords stood in the well of the chamber to resign. Wasserman Schultz read her two-page letter to Boehner.

"Everyday, I am working hard," Giffords wrote. "I will recover and will return, and we will work together again, for Arizona and for all Americans."

She purposefully made it to the podium to deliver the letter to Boehner.

Moments later, the House, including Giffords, voted for her final piece of legislation ? a bill that would impose tougher penalties on smugglers who use small, low-flying aircraft to avoid radar detection and bring drugs across the Mexican border.

The vote was 408-0. The Senate, which recently passed a version of the bill, is expected to vote Thursday on the measure and send it to Obama for his signature.

Giffords submitted resignation letters to both Boehner and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. It falls to Brewer to set a date for a special primary and general election to fill the Arizona seat. That will probably happen in the spring or early summer. In November, voters will choose someone for the full two-year term.

After the tribute, Kelly said his wife realized stepping down was the right thing to do.

"But I'm more optimistic than anybody else about her future. She just needs some more time, whether it's a year or two years or three years, I'm very confident she's going to have a long and effective career as a public servant," he said.

Asked about her daughter's future, Gloria Giffords said, "I kind of think she's transcended Congress. I don't know where she's going to end up."

"She's remembered every boy she's ever kissed, every song she's ever sang, every bill she's ever passed," she said. "So upward and onward."

___

Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Jim Abrams contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_go_co/us_giffords_resignation

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Mexico authorities unravel child trafficking ring

Karla Paola Zepeda, 17, left, and Gabriela Velazquez, 15, sit inside the room of Karla's mother, as an unidentified boyfriend of one of them is reflected in a window, in Zapopan, next to Guadalajara, Mexico, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Both teenagers claim that they agreed to lend their babies in a two-week photo shoot for $755 ($10,000 Mexican pesos) for an anti-abortion ad campaign but instead fell in an illegal adoption ring involving destitute young women trying to earn more for their children and childless Irish couples desperate to become parents. Zepeda and seven other mothers have lost their children to protective custody and another mother has been jailed for investigation. (AP Photo / Bruno Gonzalez)

Karla Paola Zepeda, 17, left, and Gabriela Velazquez, 15, sit inside the room of Karla's mother, as an unidentified boyfriend of one of them is reflected in a window, in Zapopan, next to Guadalajara, Mexico, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Both teenagers claim that they agreed to lend their babies in a two-week photo shoot for $755 ($10,000 Mexican pesos) for an anti-abortion ad campaign but instead fell in an illegal adoption ring involving destitute young women trying to earn more for their children and childless Irish couples desperate to become parents. Zepeda and seven other mothers have lost their children to protective custody and another mother has been jailed for investigation. (AP Photo / Bruno Gonzalez)

Karla Paola Zepeda, 17, left, and Gabriela Velazquez, 15, sit inside the room of Karla's mother in Zapopan, next to Guadalajara, Mexico, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Both teenagers claim that they agreed to lend their babies in a two-week photo shoot for $755 ($10,000 Mexican pesos) for an anti-abortion ad campaign but instead fell in an illegal adoption ring involving destitute young women trying to earn more for their children and childless Irish couples desperate to become parents. Zepeda and seven other mothers have lost their children to protective custody and another mother has been jailed for investigation. (AP Photo / Bruno Gonzalez)

(AP) ? Life seemed to give Karla Zepeda a break when a woman came to her dusty neighborhood of cinderblock homes and dirt roads looking for babies to photograph in an anti-abortion ad campaign.

The woman asked to use the 15-year-old's baby girl in a two-week photo shoot for $755 ($10,000 pesos), a small fortune for a teen mother who earns $180 a month at a sandwich stand and shares a cramped, one-story house with her disabled mother, stepfather, and three brothers.

But 9-month-old Camila wasn't just posing for photographs when she was taken away.

Jalisco state investigators say the child was left for weeks at a time in the care of an Irish couple who had come to Ajijic, a town of cobblestone streets and gated communities 37 miles (60 kilometers) away, thinking they were adopting her.

Prosecutors say the baby was apparently part of an illegal adoption ring that ensnared destitute young Mexican women trying to earn more for their children and childless Irish couples desperate to become parents.

Camila and nine other children have been turned over to state officials who suspect they were being groomed for illegal adoptions. And authorities hint that far more children could be involved: Lead investigator Blanca Barron told reporters the ring may have been operating for 20 years, though she gave no details. Prosecutors also say four of the children show signs of sexual abuse, though they gave no details on how or by whom.

Nine people have been detained, including two suspected leaders of the ring, but no one has yet been charged.

At least 15 Irish citizens have been questioned, the Jalisco state attorney general's office said, but officials have not released their names and their lawyer says all have returned to Ireland after spending weeks or months in Ajijic trying to meet requirements for adopting a child. None was detained.

For Karla Zepeda, the story began in August, when she was approached by Guadalupe Bosquez and agreed to lend her daughter for an anti-abortion advertising campaign, she told The Associated Press. Bosquez later returned with another woman, Silvia Soto, and gave her half the money as they picked the child up. She got the rest two weeks later when they brought Camila home.

"They showed me a poster that showed my girl with other babies and said 'No To Abortion, Yes To Life,'" said Karla, a petite girl cleaning her house to loud norteno music. "I thought it was legal because everything seemed very normal."

Before long, the message spread to her neighbors. Seven other women, most between the ages of 15 and 22, agreed to let their babies be part of the ad campaign. Some already had several children. Some are single mothers. One of them doesn't know how to read or write. Five of them told they AP that they did not even have birth certificates for their babies when they came across Bosquez and Soto.

One said she needed money to pay for her child's medical care, another to finish building an extra room on her house.

All deny agreeing to give their children up for adoption.

"We're going through a nightmare," said Fernanda Montes, an 18-year-old housewife who said she took part to pay a $670 hospital bill from the birth of her 3-month-old. "How could we have trusted someone so evil?"

The women say that Bosquez and Soto persuaded three of them to register their children as single mothers so they could participate in the anti-abortion campaign, even though they live with the children's fathers.

Children's rights activists say that also could have made it easier to release the child for adoption: only the mother's signature would be needed.

The mothers were assured that the babies were being taken care of by several nannies and checked by doctors. The babies often returned home wearing new clothes.

Some of the mothers said they began having second thoughts. But when they declined to send their children back, they say, Bosquez and Soto insisted they would have to pay for the strollers, car seats, diaper bags and everything else they had bought for the babies.

Investigators say that Bosquez and Soto were taking the children to a hotel in Guadalajara, where they met with Irish couples who believed they were going to adopt them.

The plan began to unravel on Jan. 9, when local police detained 21-year-old Laura Carranza and accused her of trying to sell her 2-year-old daughter.

Investigators said Carranza denied that allegation, but acknowledged she was "renting" her 8-month-old son. She then led authorities to Bosquez and Soto.

Both are now being held on suspicion they ran the alleged anti-abortion ad campaign as a front for an illegal adoption ring. It was not clear if they have attorneys and they have not yet been brought before a judge to say if they accept or reject the allegations.

Carranza is also being held, as is Karla's mother, Cecilia Velazquez, who hasn't worked since she lost both legs in a traffic accident in 2010. Karla says her mother's only fault was agreeing to the ad campaign.

Seven of the mothers interviewed told the AP that the children had most recently been picked up by Bosquez and Soto between Dec. 27 and Dec. 30 for an alleged photo shoot. They returned the babies on Jan. 9 and 10, saying "there had been problems." The mothers said they didn't notice anything wrong with the babies or any signs of abuse.

Then state police investigators showed up at their homes and drove them and their children to the police department for questioning. The babies were taken from them and put into state protective custody. The women complained that only four of them have been allowed to see their babies since, and only once.

A statement from Jalisco state prosecutors' said authorities seized Carranza's two children from her and the other seven while they were with Irish couples. Prosecutors didn't respond to requests by the AP to clarify the discrepancy.

Residents of Ajijic, a town on the shore of Lake Chapala favored by American and Canadian retirees, say Irish citizens looking to adopt Mexican children began appearing there at least four years ago.

Jalisco state prosecutors' spokesman Lino Gonzalez wouldn't confirm the Irish had left, but said none had been charged with a crime.

Even if they had adopted the children, Ireland might not have accepted them because the adoptions were handled privately, said Frances FitzGerald, Ireland's minister for children.

"Obviously, for any couple caught up in this, it's a nightmare scenario," she said.

"What you can't have in Mexico is people going to local agencies or individuals doing private adoptions because when they come back, there is going to be a difficulty."

Prosecutors say they have been trying without success to reach the attorneys who were handling the adoption paperwork in the neighboring state of Colima.

Custody release statements signed by all of the mothers carry the logo of Lopez y Lopez Asociados, a firm owned by Carlos Lopez Valenzuela and his son, Carlos Lopez Castellanos. Authorities raided their home last week.

The release statements were shown to the AP by a local advocate for missing and stolen children, Juan Manuel Estrada of Fundacion FIND, who said they had been leaked to him by a state official. He said Lopez Valenzuela had separately sent him a lengthy statement by email declaring that he too may have been duped in the case and denying wrongdoing.

The 15 Irish citizens told authorities they found Lopez Valenzuela through a website advertising his services, according to their lawyer, Carlos Montoya.

He said that the Irish were charged $6,000 for the search for a baby, $13,600 to gain final custody and $5,000 in legal fees, as well as the biological mother's supposed prenatal care, hospital care and nanny services.

Montoya said the babies were living with the couples in Ajijic until what they thought would be the end of the roughly four-month legal process. Several of the couples had adopted Mexican children in the past with Lopez Valenzuela and hadn't had any problems, he said.

"They are innocent people who were swindled by the lawyer managing the adoptions," he said.

They all returned to Ireland last week on his advice, he said.

Lopez Valenzuela didn't respond to emailed interview requests from the AP.

Prosecutors wouldn't confirm the authenticity of his statement to Fundacion FIND, but it mirrors the stories of seven mothers who were interviewed by the AP.

According to the statement Lopez said he had handled adoptions in Colima state for 63 Irish couples since 2004. He said he first met Bosquez when she approached him in 2009 about giving her own unborn child up for adoption to an Irish couple, a process, he wrote, that was completed legally.

The statement said that Bosquez also introduced Lopez to a social worker and together they brought him the current case involving Zepeda and the other women from Zapopan, apparently hoping he could match the children to adopting couples.

It says Lopez was told the mothers wanted only to deal with the two women, and he agreed. The young mothers confirmed they never met Lopez.

Lopez didn't respond to emailed interview requests from the AP.

According to the statement, Lopez said he follows the stringent adoption laws set by the Hague Adoption Convention, which Mexico has signed.

Unlike Guatemala or China, Mexico has not been a popular destination for foreigners looking to adopt, perhaps because the process, done by law, is complicated.

"The legal adoption process in Mexico is difficult, but cheating in Mexico is very easy," Estrada said.

___

Associated Press writer Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-23-LT-Mexico-Child-Trafficking/id-6e86e41cb796422a9484a60d3716ead9

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

If? you see a Bigfoot, should you shoot him?

In the new Animal Planet reality TV show optimistically titled "Finding Bigfoot," a team of experts examines video of an alleged Sasquatch spotted in the Canadian Rockies. The video, shot by a man named Todd Standing, shows something large and dark, standing atop a wooded ridge and then ducking back behind a bush. It could pretty much be anything, and when the experts concluded that the subject was probably not a Bigfoot, Standing expressed his frustration: "No video is ever going to be evidence, ever. It's never going to be good enough?"

Standing, like many Bigfoot researchers, misses the problem: It's not so much that any Bigfoot video is inherently worthless, it's that his video, like all that have come before it, is of such poor quality that there's no way to know what we're seeing. It could have been anything ? a guy in a dark jacket (or gorilla costume), a bear or even Bigfoot. The fatal flaw in Bigfoot photos and videos is the image quality, not the image subject. If Standing, the "Finding Bigfoot" team, or anyone else shot well-lit, clear video of what was obviously a 12-foot-tall, hairy bipedal creature in the woods, that would be compelling.

But even the highest-quality photograph or video can't be considered definitive proof of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, or any other mythical beast. Similarly, if the goal is to simply make scientists and the general public take Bigfoot seriously, then some verified remains of the creature ? be they hair, teeth, blood, bones or something else ? would do the trick.

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    4. If? you see a Bigfoot, should you shoot him?

But definitive proof is a very high standard. Most Bigfoot enthusiasts ? and the general public ? would be satisfied with nothing less than the rock-solid definitive proof offered by a living or dead specimen.

This issue brings up a longstanding debate within the Bigfoot community: Would it be ethical to shoot and kill a Bigfoot? Some say yes, because that's the only way to prove they exist, and once proof is found, funds could be made available to protect them as an endangered species. Others say no ? that because Bigfoot sightings are so rare, they must have very small populations and killing one might drive the animals to extinction. Shooting a suspected Bigfoot with tranquilizer darts is an option that has gained some steam.

Ethics and the lethal-or-nonlethal debate aside, there's a good reason aiming your gun at a Bigfoot could be a bad idea: It might be illegal. A Texas teen shot what he believed to be a Chupacabra earlier this year, and while charges were not brought against him, if the creature turned out to be someone's dog or a mangy coyote, he could potentially have faced a felony charge.

The point is, you simply can't know for sure if the mysterious, burly figure you have lined up in your sights is the real beast, or a bear or someone's pet ? or, even worse, just a person in a gorilla suit.

Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries. His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.

? 2012 LifesLittleMysteries.com. All rights reserved. More from LifesLittleMysteries.com.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46103578/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Japan central bank downgrades growth forecast (AP)

TOKYO ? Japan's central bank said Tuesday it expects the economy to shrink slightly during the fiscal year ending in March instead of expanding as it forecast earlier because of the overseas slowdown.

The Bank of Japan kept its key interest rate the same at close to zero percent but downgraded its growth forecast for the year ending March 2012 to a 0.4 percent contraction from the 0.3 percent expansion it gave in October.

The bank stuck to its projection for a moderate recovery starting the first half of the next fiscal year.

But it lowered its projection for fiscal 2012 to 2.0 percent growth from 2.2 percent growth. It was more upbeat about fiscal 2013, raising that to a 1.6 percent expansion from 1.5 percent.

The bank said the massive debt problems in Europe as well as uncertainty about the U.S. economy are risks for Japan's outlook.

The strong yen, which erodes the value of exports from the world's third largest economy, also dragged down growth, keeping economic activity "more or less flat," it said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy

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Monday, January 23, 2012

San Francisco 49ers: Win or lose, they're back

San Francisco 49ers, after a decade of irrelevance, are in the NFC championship game, on the brink of the Super Bowl. Welcome back, San Francisco 49ers.

This playoff season seems bent on chucking every story line the NFL had going in 2011.

Skip to next paragraph

The Packers? perfect season? Out. Tebow magic? Done, for now. The firing of Tom Coughlin?? We can definitely count that out, at least for another year (New York fans have a short memory, but beating the mighty Packers in Lambeau field at least ensures the Giants head coach gets to show up for work again in August).? Peyton Manning?s position at the top of the Manning hierarchy?? Even that?s in question, as a slew of analysts are now suggesting that little brother Eli might have been the best Manning all along.

Meanwhile, the barely noticed San Francisco 49ers had their best season in over a decade and emerged victorious from perhaps the best game of the playoffs against the Saints. The team by the bay has made it to the NFC championship, one win away from the Super Bowl.

Safe to say, no one really saw the 49ers coming. Why would they? San Francisco hadn?t had a winning record since 2002. Their biggest roster change from 2010?s 6-10 season was at head coach. Jim Harbaugh was an NFL coaching rookie, too, fresh from Stanford University. Given the team he was inheriting, a ?rebuilding year? would have been reasonable.

The 49ers most recognizable player? Quarterback Alex Smith, who has had a fraught relationship with the 49ers since the team drafted him first overall in the 2005 NFL Draft.? He?s been booed and benched constantly throughout his seven seasons; until last week, the highest praise anyone could muster for Smith concerned his ?game management? skills. But he clinched the NFC Championship for San Francisco last Saturday, with a game-winning touchdown pass to Vernon Davis with nine seconds left.

The rest of the 49ers roster has blossomed in the same way. Bucking the trend of most offense-heavy playoff squads this year, the 49ers have the best rush defense in the league, as well as a dangerous running game led by running back Frank Gore. The New York Giants are playing like a dream, but it will take their best to beat San Francisco at Candlestick Park.

Even if they do, the 49ers are beginning to look like their old selves again. There was a time, not so very long ago, when the franchise?s storied tradition and decades of domination garnered the same fear and respect as, say, the Patriots or the Packers do now. ?With five winning Super Bowl appearances, 16 consecutive seasons of 10-plus wins, and two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in a row (Joe Montana and Steve Young), the 49ers dynasty of the 1980s and '90s was so dominant that it has little chance of being duplicated anytime soon.

Their reign at the top of the NFL seemed endless in both directions: If you grew up in the 1990?s, Joe Montana was a word problem in your math workbook. Steve Young and wide receiver Jerry Rice were doing a funny Visa commercial on your television.

These 49ers aren?t quite there yet. But other teams are justifiably scared of the red and gold again, and that?s a good place to start.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/1WzE9cP_hSY/San-Francisco-49ers-Win-or-lose-they-re-back

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Epic clash: Silicon Valley blindsides Hollywood on piracy (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The massive online protest last Wednesday, in which Wikipedia and thousands of other websites closed down or otherwise protested and helped to kill controversial online piracy legislation, was widely heralded as an unprecedented case of a grassroots uprising overcoming backroom lobbying.

Yet a close look at how the debate unfolded suggests that traditional means of influencing policy in Washington had its place too. The technology industry has ramped up its political activities dramatically in recent years, and in fact, has spent more than the entertainment industry -- $1.2 billion between 1998 and 2011, compared with $906.4 million spent by entertainment companies.

The latest chapter in what has become an epic, decades-long battle between the two industries over copyrighted digital content began innocuously enough. Hollywood movie studios, frustrated by online theft that they claim already costs them billions of dollars a year and will only get worse, in 2010 started pushing for a law that would make it possible to block access and cut off payments to foreign websites offering pirated material.

In 2010, longtime industry friend Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, introduced a bill, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously but never went further.

In May last year, Leahy tried again, introducing his Protect IP (Intellectual Property) Act. In October, Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a similar bill. The last major piece of copyright law, the Pro-IP Act of 2008, moved through Congress with little controversy, so the industry felt hopeful.

Through the end of September, Hollywood had outspent the tech industry 2-to-1 in donations to key supporters of measures it was backing. More than $950,000 from the TV, music and movie industries has gone to original sponsors of the House and Senate bills in the 2012 election cycle, compared with about $400,000 from computer and Internet companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Tech companies preferred backers of a narrower alternative bill. The computer and Internet industries gave more than $291,000 to supporters of that measure vs. about $185,000 from the content makers.

"They're both very powerful. They're all big players. They give a lot of money to politicians. This has to be a tough choice for many members of Congress," said Larry Sabato, a campaign finance expert who teaches at the University of Virginia.

PAY ATTENTION

The bills had attracted no public attention, but in early September, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman wrote to senators to oppose the bill. Later that month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce marshaled a group of 350 companies to write in supporting it.

The introduction of the House bill in late October prompted more scrutiny. Critics including the Consumer Electronics Association fretted over issues such as whether U.S. websites could be shut down under the bill, and security risks to Internet infrastructure that they said may arise.

By mid November, technology executives were paying close attention. Many watched online as Google copyright counsel Katherine Oyama testified before a House Judiciary Committee hearing November 16. Another, Ben Huh, chief executive of the online media network Cheezburger Inc, would eventually help organize the Web blackout.

Members of Congress "basically beat up Google," said Huh, who tuned in from the office. "We were watching it going, 'This is incredibly unfair.'"

Later that day, he talked over the testimony with Erik Martin, general manager of the social news site Reddit.com. The two would later help lead the online blackout efforts, along with others such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Meanwhile, the White House was taking meetings from both sides. The first week of December, Motion Picture Association of America chief and former Senator Chris Dodd moved the MPAA's board meeting from its traditional site of Los Angeles to Washington, in part so executives could lobby on the issues.

Dodd, along with movie executives including Warner Bros Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer and Fox Filmed Entertainment co-Chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, met with White House officials including chief of staff Bill Daley and Vice President Joe Biden, according to a person familiar with the situation. They hammered home why the law was needed to go after foreign sites.

TAKING TURNS

The following week, it was the tech companies' turn. Executives including LinkedIn's Hoffman, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, and venture capitalists Brad Burnham and Paul Maeder met with the same officials to press their case.

Major tech companies then took out advertisements in newspapers including the Washington Post and The New York Times, saying the bills would allow U.S. government censorship of the Internet. The ads ran December 14 in the form of an open letter to Washington, signed by heavyweights such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

The ads ran as the House Judiciary Committee was turning back the bill. The proceedings streamed live over the Internet, allowing the public to watch many members struggling to fully understand terms such as IP address and DNS server.

North Carolina Rep. Mel Watt, for example, professed that he was "not a nerd and didn't understand a lot of the technological stuff." That opened them up to mockery in the blogosphere, with commentators questioning their ability to craft law around the Internet. "Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How the Internet Works," Motherboard blogger Joshua Kopstein wrote in a widely circulated post.

The weekend after the committee adjourned its hearing, opponents started an online petition to veto SOPA at the White House's "We the People" website. Within days, the petition had acquired 38,500 signatures, far exceeding the 25,000 required for review by the administration. An separate petition started in late October had already gathered more than 52,000 signatures.

A few days before Christmas, the House Judiciary Committee released the names of the many companies that supported SOPA. But that succeeded only in galvanizing further opposition: influential Silicon Valley investor Paul Graham took the unusual step of saying that any company that supported SOPA would be barred from Demo Day, an industry showcase.

People posting to the social-news site Reddit then suggested a boycott of one of the bill's supporters, the domain-name registrar GoDaddy, asking people to transfer their domains to another registrar. Many sites, among them Huh's Cheezburger, said they would switch. Just before New Year's Day, GoDaddy dropped its support for the bill amid widespread publicity.

Meanwhile, the White House was crafting its response to the online petitions. Three top aides to President Barack Obama, who won election in 2008 supported by online organizing and who has long been friendly to Internet industry concerns, weighed in on the issue in mid-January just as Hollywood was preparing to celebrate the Golden Globe Awards. The officials posted a response to the online petition and voiced concerns about the bills, while calling for improved antipiracy legislation.

That sparked a flood of media coverage and helped expand the Internet blackout to more sites. One popular protest, the brainchild of Instagram engineer Greg Hochmuth and YouTube Product Management Director Hunter Wall, allowed people to add black "Stop SOPA" banners to their Twitter and Facebook profile photos. On Wednesday, some 30 people a minute were adding the banners to their photos, Hochmuth told Reuters.

A FORMIDABLE COMBO

The combination of White House concerns, the impending online protest and the intense pressure on legislators from high-profile Internet industry leaders abruptly changed the dynamic on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, as the blackout unfolded, support for the bills quickly crumbled.

Some Hollywood executives acknowledge their own flat-footedness in trying to marshal public opinion as opposition mounted. While technology companies brandished the power of the Internet, Hollywood relied on old-media weapons such as television commercials and a billboard in New York's Times Square. It proved to be too little, too late.

One entertainment-company lawyer complained that opposing arguments were often inaccurate but spread like wildfire anyway on the Internet, leaving supporters scrambling to correct the information without the benefit of a strong online network.

"We do some of that (online) stuff, but it has to go through a committee of 14 people," he said. "The other side doesn't have conference calls. They just put stuff out there."

Both friends and foes of SOPA and PIPA do not think they have seen the end of this battle.

"Bills are a lot like zombies," said Cheezburger's Huh. "You never know if they're dead or going to come back."

When it comes around again, lobbyists on both sides will have learned some valuable lessons.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, with additional reporting by Jasmin Melvin and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/en_nm/us_congress_piracy

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

'Extinct' monkey rediscovered in Borneo by new expedition

Friday, January 20, 2012

An international team of scientists has found one of the rarest and least known primates in Borneo, Miller's Grizzled Langur, a species which was believed to be extinct or on the verge of extinction. The team's findings, published in the American Journal of Primatology, confirms the continued existence of this endangered monkey and reveals that it lives in an area where it was previously not known to exist.

Miller's Grizzled Langur (Presbytis hosei canicrus) is part of the small primate genus Presbytis, found across Borneo, Sumatra, Java and the Thai-Malay Peninsula. In Borneo, P.h. canicrus is only found in a small corner of the county's north east and its habitat has suffered from fires, human encroachment and conversion of land for agriculture and mining.

The team's expedition took to them to Wehea Forest in East Kalimantan, Borneo, a large 38,000 ha area of mostly undisturbed rainforest. Wehea contains at least nine known species of non-human primate, including the Bornean orangutan and gibbon.

"Discovery of P.h canicrus was a surprise since Wehea Forest lies outside of this monkey's known range. Future research will focus on estimating the population density for P.h. canicrus in Wehea and the surrounding forest," said Brent Loken, from Simon Fraser University Canada. "Concern that the species may have gone extinct was first raised in 2004, and a search for the monkey during another expedition in 2008 supported the assertion that the situation was dire."

By conducting observations at mineral licks where animals congregate and setting up camera traps in several locations, the expedition confirmed that P. h canicrus continues to survive in areas west of its previously recorded geographic range. The resulting photos provide the first solid evidence demonstrating that its geographic range extends further than previously thought.

"It was a challenge to confirm our finding as there are so few pictures of this monkey available for study," said Loken. "The only description of Miller's Grizzled Langur came from museum specimens. Our photographs from Wehea are some of the only pictures that we have of this monkey."

"East Kalimantan can be a challenging place to conduct research, given the remoteness of many remaining forested areas, so it isn't surprising that so little is known about this primate," said Dr. Stephanie Spehar, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. "We are very grateful to our local partners. This discovery represents the hard work, dedication, and collaboration of Western and Indonesian scientists, students, NGOs, as well as local communities and government."

"While our finding confirms the monkey still exists in East Kalimantan, there is a good chance that it remains one of the world's most endangered primates," concluded Loken. "I believe it is a race against time to protect many species in Borneo. It is difficult to adopt conservation strategies to protect species when we don't even know the extent of where they live. We need more scientists in the field working on understudied species such as Miller's Grizzled Langur, clouded leopards and sun bears."

###

Wiley-Blackwell: http://www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell

Thanks to Wiley-Blackwell 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.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116909/_Extinct__monkey_rediscovered_in_Borneo_by_new_expedition

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Researchers solve questions about Ethiopians' high-altitude adaptations

ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2012) ? Over many generations, people living in the high-altitude regions of the Andes or on the Tibetan Plateau have adapted to life in low-oxygen conditions. Living with such a distinct and powerful selective pressure has made these populations a textbook example of evolution in action, but exactly how their genes convey a survival advantage remains an open question. Now, a University of Pennsylvania team has made new inroads to answering this question with the first genome-wide study of high-altitude adaptations within the third major population to possess them: the Amhara people of the Ethiopian Highlands.

Surprisingly, all three groups' adaptations appear to involve different genetic mutations, an example of convergent evolution.

"These three groups took different genetic approaches to solving the same problem," said senior author Sarah Tishkoff, a Penn Integrates Knowledge professor with appointments in the genetics department in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine and the biology department in the School of Arts and Sciences.

In addition to Tishkoff, the research was led by Laura B. Scheinfeldt, a research scientist in the genetics department at the Perelman medical school. Other members of the genetics department who contributed to the research are Sameer Soi, Simon Thompson, Alessia Ranciaro, William Beggs, Charla Lambert and Joseph P. Jarvis.

The Penn team collaborated with Dawit Wolde Meskel, Dawit Abate and Gurja Belay of the Department of Biology of Addis Ababa University.

Their research was published today in the journal Genome Biology.

One of the guiding principles behind evolution is natural selection; the more an organism is suited to its environment, the more likely it is to survive and pass on its genes. In high-altitude environments, oxygen concentration is low, a condition that can rapidly sicken -- even kill -- individuals who are not acclimated.

"As genetic anthropologists," Scheinfeldt said, "we know what patterns of genetic variation we expect to see after positive, or Darwinian, selection has occurred. Then we look for those patterns in the genome and try to make biological sense of what we find.

"The easiest way for us to do this is to look at situations where there's been very strong selective pressure: a disease with a really high mortality rate, or here at high-altitude where there are hypoxic conditions. This kind of situation makes a dramatic difference in terms of who passes on their genes, so it gives us more power to find the genetic signatures left behind."

Pregnant women are especially susceptible to the physiological pressure represented by hypoxia, which influences the birth weight and health of their children. Yet people have been living in the high-altitude regions of the Andes and the Tibetan Plateau for generations, with little apparent ill effect.

Anthropologists, notably, Cynthia Beall, of Case Western University, and Lorna Moore, of Wake Forest University, have therefore extensively documented their physiological traits, trying to understand how these groups offset the problems pregnant women would normally have in hypoxic environments. More recently, geneticists have attempted to correlate these physical traits, or phenotypes, with the genes that are responsible for them, or genotypes.

Researchers have long wanted to add additional populations for comparison, and while the people of the Ethiopian Highlands met the criteria, living at over 3,000 meters above sea level, economic, linguistic and geographic hurdles stood in the way of collecting the data.

"This was an extremely challenging study. The logistics alone, getting permits and permission to do this trip, took us many years," Tishkoff said.

"Sampling from these remote populations was also very difficult," said Simon Thompson, who was part of the group's field team. "Roads were impassable and we spent a lot of time just trying to find the groups that were living at the highest altitude possible."

The researchers compared the genotypes and phenotypes of Amhara participants with those of two other Ethiopian groups that live at lower altitudes. They also compared the Amhara group with Nigerian and European groups that live at or around sea level.

"We make these comparisons," Scheinfeldt said, "to figure out where in the genome the high-altitude group looks distinct from the other groups. Those distinct areas are candidate regions for genetic variants contributing to high altitude adaptation. Two of the top candidates are involved in the HIF-1 pathway, a pathway that is initiated in hypoxic conditions."

Both the Andean and Tibetan populations had mutations related to the HIF-1 pathway as well, but all three groups differed in both genotype and phenotype. One difference in phenotype had to do with hemoglobin, the part of the blood that transports oxygen. Ethiopians and Andeans had hemoglobin levels that were higher than low-altitude populations, but the Tibetans had average levels.

The researchers also discovered a variant in the Ethiopian groups in a gene involved in mitochondrial function. Mitochondria regulate the production of ATP, the chemical cells use for energy, making this gene another interesting candidate for playing a role in adaptation to high altitude.

These differences all seem to play a role in how well a body can maintain homeostasis in low-oxygen conditions, but even seemingly clear advantages, such as higher levels of hemoglobin, are only proxies for more complex phenotypic changes. Putting them together into the big picture of how certain genes translate into a survival advantage will require more focused research based on the Tishkoff lab's findings.

We're chipping away at this question," Scheinfeldt said. "Every little bit helps."

Such research holds promise beyond understanding the history of these populations.

"There's a lot of interest in this kind of research from the biomedical community, in terms of lung physiology and oxygen transport," Tishkoff said. "If one can understand how it is that people who have these genetic adaptations can do fine at these high altitudes while the rest of us suffer, it could help us better understand one of the body's vital systems."

This research was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Laura B Scheinfeldt, Sameer Soi, Simon Thompson, Alessia Ranciaro, Dawit Wolde Meskel, William Beggs, Charla Lambert, Joseph P Jarvis, Dawit Abate, Gurja Belay, Sarah A Tishkoff. Genetic adaptation to high altitude in the Ethiopian highlands. Genome Biology, 2012; 13 (1): R1 DOI: 10.1186/gb-2012-13-1-r1

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/VlFtRkUZDrY/120120184530.htm

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

2012 Republican Primary Mud-Slinging in Historical Perspective (ContributorNetwork)

Mud-slinging is an inherent part of elections in the United States, and 2012 is no exception. Here's a rundown on mud slung so far in this year primaries, who slung it, and how it compares to mudslinging in elections of years past.

2012 Republican Primary Mud

* Ron Paul opponent Jere Brower allegedly hatched a plot to plant Ku Klux Klan-robed volunteers with pro-Paul signs at his rallies, Digital Journal reported Sunday. Paul's been linked to a decades old newsletter containing racially inflammatory material, the Christian Science Monitor noted.

* Youtube user "LibertyforPaul" posted a video attempting to smear former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman as "the Manchurian candidate," mocking his Chinese fluency and questioning his U.S. loyalty and the legality of his Asian daughters' adoptions.

* Pro-Mitt Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future said of Newt Gingrich in a television ad, "You know what makes Barack Obama happy? Newt Gingrich's baggage. Newt has more baggage than the airlines." The ad impliedly reminds voters of Gingrich's association with Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, his 1997 reprimand for failing to ensure his use of tax-exempt groups was legal and lying to the House leadership, and his Freddie Mac consultancy profits.

* A Ron Paul ad portrays Rick Santorum as holding a "blackbelt in hypocrisy," alleging Santorum reversed course on a balanced budget amendment and right to work legislation, while taking more money from lobbyists than anyone else in Washington.

American Mud-Slinging History

* In 1876, Democrats bristled at accusations that Samuel J. Tilden was a tax evader who profited from corruption, Our White House noted. In retaliation, his supporters claimed Rutherford B. Hayes stole money from dead soldiers and shot his own mother.

* "Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha," became the rallying cry of Grover Cleveland supporters in 1884, after Republicans chanted, "Ma, Ma, where's my pa?" to shame him for fathering a child out of wedlock. At a James Blaine speech, the emcee called Democrats the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion," smearing pro-Cleveland Irish-Catholic voters.

* In 1988, an independent group for George H.W. Bush used a race-baiting ad against Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis. The ad cast blame on Dukakis for a black felon going AWOL on a weekend prison pass and raping a woman.

* The 2004 Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry was similarly a product of a pro-Bush group. According to the Washington Post, the ad accused John Kerry of exaggerating his military service record to win medals and dishonoring the country by participating in anti-war protests on his return from Vietnam.

* John McCain was smeared in 2008 by anonymous false rumors he fathered an out-of-wedlock black baby and was married to a drug addict.

* An unidentified party circulated a Christmas card in 2007 attacking Mitt Romney's religion. The card, purportedly from Romney's family, contained a quote about God having several wives.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120119/pl_ac/10850839_2012_republican_primary_mudslinging_in_historical_perspective

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The 2012 tech primary (Politico)

As GOP presidential contenders stump for votes from Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina, Google, Facebook and Twitter are in a race of their own ? for millions of dollars in political ads.

The tech giants are offering candidates new ways to advertise ? Mitt Romney has spots on YouTube and Rick Perry?s Facebook ads target Christian college kids in South Carolina ? and hiring political consultants, sponsoring debates and poaching from each other?s ad sales teams to jockey for the top spot in political social media circles.

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?This is the Twitter election,? boasted Peter Greenberger, who Twitter recently lured away from Google, where he started the search giant?s political ad sales team in 2007. ?We?ll be a core component.?

Not so fast, says Google, the most experienced Web company when it comes to political advertising. Google has expanded its team to work directly with campaigns to come up with ad strategies and every Republican presidential candidate has already bought in, and several have also?bought newly refined YouTube ads that target viewers in specific states or cities.

?What we saw in Iowa and New Hampshire was campaigns using search ads to recruit volunteers and get out the vote,? said Rob Saliterman, who heads Google?s political ad sales on the Republican side. ?They?re reaching people at the exact moment where someone has expressed interest in the campaign.?

In 2008 and 2010, candidates largely used Google ads to fundraise. Now, in a sign of new sophistication, candidates are using the ads to persuade voters. For example, they?ve begun to run search ads on each other?s names. In Iowa, a Google search for Rick Santorum would bring up a critical ad paid for by Perry?s campaign. When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorsed Romney, his campaign bought ads to pop up when voters searched for Christie.

Google also owns YouTube, the Web?s biggest online video network, where candidates frequently post short ad spots and commercials. New for this election, YouTube offers a ?TrueView? feature that tracks how long viewers watch a video ad, so campaigns only pay when a viewer watches most of the ad.

Then there?s Facebook, which also has practice when it comes to working with politicians, though its user base was smaller for previous elections. The social networking behemoth allows campaigns to target voters of a specific demographic with specific interests because users volunteer their personal information.

In Iowa, for example, Perry?s campaign marketed his faith-focused commercials to Iowans who identified themselves as Christians on Facebook. The campaign also made sure a spot featuring his wife, Anita Perry, was prominent on the pages of conservative women in the state.

Last week, Perry?s campaign launched a new ad targeting students at Furman University, a Baptist college in South Carolina, according to Vincent Harris of Harris Media, who manages Perry?s digital strategy.

Twitter, already central to the national political conversation, is a newcomer to the political ad arena. In September, it launched its first political product aiming to get a cut of the lucrative 2012 ad spend.

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Romney says he may release tax returns in April

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during the South Carolina Republican presidential candidate debate Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during the South Carolina Republican presidential candidate debate Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, right, speaks during the South Carolina Republican presidential candidate debate as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, listens Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks during the South Carolina Republican presidential candidate debate Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Republican presidential candidateTexas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during the South Carolina Republican presidential candidate debate Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks during the South Carolina Republican presidential candidate debate Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

(AP) ? Mitt Romney's four remaining challengers for the Republican presidential nomination did their best to knock the front-runner off stride in a contentious debate, but the best they could do was to get him to grudgingly agree to consider releasing his tax returns.

Romney didn't bend under heavy rhetorical pressure on the issue of his job-creation record at the private equity firm Bain Capital, nor did he apologize on stage for his evolving views on abortion. The former Massachusetts governor stressed the independence of the super PACs that have been running negative ads in his behalf against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other rivals, including former Sen. Rick Santorum.

Monday's night's debate was as fiery as any of the more than dozen that preceded it.

Romney did say that while he might be willing to release his tax returns, he wouldn't do so until tax filing time in April. And the multimillionaire former businessman didn't get much gratitude from his rivals for his halting change of heart.

"If there's nothing there, why is he waiting 'til April?" Gingrich told reporters.

Romney at first sidestepped calls from his rivals to release his records, then acknowledging later that he'd follow the lead of previous presidential candidates.

"I have nothing in them that suggests there's any problem and I'm happy to do so," he said. "I sort of feel like we're showing a lot of exposure at this point," he added.

Romney, the clear front-runner for the GOP nomination after back-to-back wins in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, was under fire from Gingrich and fellow GOP rivals Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum in Monday night's debate as they sought to knock him off stride.

The five will meet again in debate in Charleston Thursday night, the last time they will share a stage before Saturday's South Carolina primary.

The first Southern primary could prove decisive in the volatile contest. Gingrich has virtually conceded that a victory for Romney in South Carolina would assure his nomination as Democratic President Barack Obama's Republican rival in the fall, and none of the other remaining contenders has challenged that conclusion.

That only elevated the stakes for Monday night's debate. It was feisty from the outset, with the attacks on Romney often couched in anti-Obama rhetoric.

"We need to satisfy the country that whoever we nominate has a record that can stand up to Barack Obama in a very effective way," said Gingrich.

The five men on stage also sought to outdo one another in calling for lower taxes. Texas Rep. Ron Paul won that competition handily, saying he thought the top personal tax rate should be zero.

In South Carolina, a state with a heavy military presence, the tone turned muscular at times.

Gingrich drew strong applause when he said: "Andrew Jackson had a pretty clear idea about America's enemies. Kill them."

Perry also won favor from the crowd when he said the Obama administration had overreacted in its criticism of the Marines who were videotaped urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Gingrich and Perry led the assault against Romney's record at Bain Capital, a private equity firm that bought companies and sought to remake them into more competitive enterprises, with uneven results.

"There was a pattern in some companies ... of leaving them with enormous debt and then within a year or two or three having them go broke," Gingrich said. "I think that's something he ought to answer."

Perry referred to a steel mill in Georgetown, S.C. where, he said, "Bain swept in, they picked that company over and a lot of people lost jobs there."

Romney said the steel industry was battered by unfair competition from China. As for other firms, he said, "Four of the companies that we invested in ... ended up today having some 120,000 jobs." And he acknowledged, "Some of the businesses we invested in were not successful and lost jobs."

It was Perry who challenged Romney to release his income tax returns. The Texas governor said he has already done so, and Gingrich has said he will do likewise later in the week.

"Mitt, we need for you to release your income tax so the people of this country can see how you made your money. ... We cannot fire our nominee in September. We need to know now," Perry said.

Later, a debate moderator pressed Romney on releasing his tax returns. His response meandered.

"If that's been the tradition I'm not opposed to doing that," Romney said. "Time will tell. But I anticipate that most likely I'm going to get asked to do that in the April time period and I'll keep that open."

Prodded again, he said, "If I become our nominee ... what's happened in history is people have released them in about April of the coming year, and that's probably what I'd do."

April is long after the South Carolina primary and the Republican nomination could easily be all but decided by then, following Super Tuesday contests around the country in March.

Santorum stayed away from the clash over taxes, instead launching a dispute of his own. He said a campaign group supporting Romney has been attacking him for supporting voter rights for convicted felons, and asked Romney what his position was on the issue.

Romney initially ducked a direct answer, preferring to ask Santorum if the ad was accurate.

He then said he doesn't believe convicted violent felons should have the right to vote, even after serving their terms. Santorum instantly said that as governor of Massachusetts, Romney hadn't made any attempt to change a law that permitted convicted felons to vote while still on parole, a law the former Pennsylvania senator said was more liberal than the one he has been assailed for supporting.

Romney replied that as a Republican governor, he was confronted with a legislature that was heavily Democratic and held a different position.

He also reminded Santorum that candidates have no control over the campaign groups that have played a pivotal role in the race to date.

"It is inaccurate," Santorum said of the ad assailing him. "I would go out and say: 'Stop it. That you're representing me and you're representing my campaign. Stop it.'"

That issue returned more than an hour later, when Gingrich said he too has faced false attacks from the same group that is criticizing Santorum. He noted that Romney says he lacks sway over the group, "which makes you wonder how much influence he would have if he were president."

Romney said he hoped no group would run inaccurate ads, and he said the organization backing Gingrich was airing a commercial that is so false that "it's probably the biggest hoax since Bigfoot."

He called for scuttling the current system of campaign finance laws to permit individuals to donate as much money as they want to the candidates of their choice.

Noting that the debate was occurring on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, one moderator asked Gingrich if his previous statements about poor children lacking a work ethic were "insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans."

"No," Gingrich said emphatically, adding his aim was to break dependence on government programs. "I'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn to get a better job and learn someday to own the job," he said.

Romney is the leader in the public opinion polls in South Carolina, although his rivals hope the state's 9.9 percent unemployment rate and the presence of large numbers of socially conservative evangelical voters will allow one of them to slip by him.

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Associated Press writer Dave Espo contributed to this report.

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Follow Shannon McCaffrey at www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

Associated Press

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